ON MESMERISM,
PUBLISHED BY H. BAILLIERE,

219, REGENT STREET, LONDON ;
AND 169, FULTON STREET, NEW YORK, U.S.

ASHBURNER (JOHN). Facts in Clairvoyance, with Obser-
vations on Mesmerism, and its Application to the Philosophy

> of Medicine, and to the Cure of Diseases. 8,vo. London, 1848. Is.

DELEUZE. Practical Instruction on Animal Magnetism.
Translated by Thomas Hartshorn. Fourth Edition. With
l Notes, and a Life, bv Dr. Foissac. 12mo. London, 1850.
I 4s. 6d.

REICHENBACH (BARON CHARLES). Physico-Physiolo-
gical Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity,
? Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, in their Relations to
\ Vital Force. The Complete Work from the German, Second
\ Edition, with Additions, a Preface, and Critical Notes. By
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I professional influence." — Family Herald, No. 371, June 15, 1850.

TESTE. A Practical Manual of Animal Magnetism : containing >
an Exposition of the Methods Employed in Producing the )
\ Magnetic Phenomena, with its application to the Treatment and I
\ Cure of Diseases. By A. Teste, M.D. Translated from the
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< 8vo. London, 1843. 6s.

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\ Second Edition, with a new Preface, and Enlarged. 8vo. Lon- c
\ don, 1844. 9s. The most Philosophical Work on the subject. <

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14, Dean's Yard, Westminster, s.w.

No.

THE

MESMERIST'S MANUAL

OF

PHENOMENA AND PRACTICE ;

WITH DIRECTIONS FOR APPLYING

MESMERISM

TO

€lje Cure of |iseases,

AND THE METHODS OP PRODUCING MESMERIC PHENOMENA.

INTENDED FOR DOMESTIC USE AND THE
INSTRUCTION OF BEGINNERS.

By GEORGE BARTH.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON :
II. BAILLIERE, 219, REGENT STREET,

VXD S<>T.D BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1851.

^S¥S$z/6Vf

LONDON : PRINTED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
WARWICK COU^fT HOLBORN.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

In presenting this little Manual to the public, I seek to offer
something which may be useful to those who desire a knowledge
of the subject. I do not, for a moment, presume to say that I
can teach that which is not already known. I claim nothing
as a discoverer, — I am merely a retailer of other men's dis-
coveries. That which a man leams from others and then reduces
to practical experiment, verifying and understanding by personal
observation, he makes his own, — and may again teach or set it
forth without being charged as a mere plagiarist. Mesmerism
was well understood and practised, even in this country, before
I was born ; all relating to it which I now know and can tell
has been already ascertained; it is therefore not personally a
fault— that I cannot teach anything not previously known. The
information which I try to give in the following pages I know
to be truth; the reader will judge if it be given plainly or
obscurely ; I can only hope for a favourable verdict if found
worthy of it. I make no pretension to elegance of composition,
seek not to produce a literary work, but am content if it be
found plain and practical, and consequently useful. If I am
charged with twice telling or repeating the same thing too
often— be it so ; I would rather tell too well than be obscure,
or not tell plainly enough that which it is important the learner
should clearly apprehend.

I hope I have not omitted quotation marks where I have
quoted from others. I have too active an organ of Self-esteem
to be a mere copyist ; when giving the result of others' thoughts
their words may have unwittingly been used, and to this extent

IV PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

a plagiarism committed. I am not conscious that it is so, and
plead not guilty of a wilful purpose and intent.

If any reader finds I have written too much he can put down
the book ; if some think I have not told enough I refer them to
the works of Sandby, Townshend, Teste, Deleuze, and others,
which may be obtained at Bailliere's, the publisher.

In various numbers of the Zoist are papers by Dr. Elliotson
containing most valuable information of a practical kind, and
any question as to the utility of mesmerism as an agent for
curing diseases will be quite set at rest by a perusal of that
periodical.

The necessity of doing justice to my subject has compelled
me to state much which the uninformed reader will scarcely
accept as credible ; it is not easy to believe seeming impossi-
bilities ; but the reader must know that things which were
deemed absurd and impossible by the past generation are the
established truths of the present one. The natural tendency
of human intelligence is to progression; to refuse the truth
because it is not understood is to finite all improvement. Let
the reader reflect on this, and grant me that credence which in
like circumstances he would solicit from another. The majority
of mesmerists have commenced by doubting, have next pro-
ceeded to experimental investigation, and believe from the
rational evidence afforded by their personal experience. Eeader !
if you would be convinced of the truth of mesmerism and its
phenomena you have but to follow this example. Truth will
not be won unless courted.

Geokge Bakth.
February, 1850.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The whole number of copies of the first edition of this little
book were sold off in ten months without any puffing or the
usual means (by general advertising) of forcing a sale being
employed. I may therefore fairly presume that it has found
favour with that portion of the public who are studying mes-
merism, and certainly need not make any apology for re-publish-
ing it. The first edition was given as the result, not of other
persons' teaching or other persons' theories, but of my own
practical experience. Since it was published my time and
faculties have been wholly and constantly employed in the
practice of mesmerism or superintending its practice by others ;
consequently I have been increasing my experimental know-
ledge of the subject, but have not found any reason presented
for rejecting or altering the statements or instructions pre-
viously given. This edition has been carefully revised and
some additional matter added ; the corrections which have been
made tend rather to amend the style than to alter the sense of
the former one. I can confidently assure my readers that
every statement made in the following pages may be relied
on as truth. I do not assert on the hearsay evidence of others,
but on the rational conviction afforded by the evidence of my
own senses, supported by the evidence of all others who have
practical knowledge of the facts. The subject of mesmerism is
now exciting such universal attention, both on account of the
wonderful phenomena produced and the beautiful cures of
diseases obtained by the application of its influence, that all
works, which profess to discover ifs true nature, to explain its

VI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

laws, or to guide the learner in its practice, must certainly be
acceptable to the reading and thinking public. In preparing
this Manual I have carefully avoided hypotheses, and confined
myself to facts and practical instructions, but I nevertheless
fear it will be found imperfect and unsatisfactory to those who
desire a large and comprehensive knowledge of the subject,
who seek an acquaintance with the mesmeric causes of our
mesmeric effects or facts. This information must be sought
from abler pens than mine. Men of competent ability are
now engaged on the subject. In the meanwhile my readers,
in addition to the works of Sandby and Townshend, may also
apply themselves with both pleasure and profit to the study of
the Baron von Keichenbach's " Researches," and the perusal of
a recent and excellent work, by Dr. Gregory, the celebrated
professor of chemistry at Edinburgh, entitled " Letters to a
Candid Enquirer on Animal Magnetism."

George Earth.

No. 4, Momiwjton Crescent,
May 1th, 1851.

CONTENTS.

l'AtSK.

Introduction 1

Mesmerism, — what '? , 2

Brief History thereof 4

First French Commission 9

Second French Commission 10

Progress in London and India 12

Of Mesmeric States 21

Mesmeric Sleep 25

Mesmeric Waking State 42

The Sleep-waking State 49

Simple Mesmeric Vision and Clairvoyance 53

Medical Instinct 54

Intro- vision ib.

Post- vision, and Pre-vision or Prophecy 58

Ecstasy 66

Miscellaneous Phenomena 69

Traction ib.

Catalepsy : 70

Rigidity ib.

Apparent Adhesion ib.

Transposition of the Senses 71

Phreno-Mesmerism 72

Nervous and Cerebral Sympathy, or Transfer of Sense

and Thought 74

Dominance of Will 78

Mesmeric Promise 80

Mesmeric Attraction . . . . , 81

Vlll CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Mesmeric Processes .. 85

Mesmeric Passes, &c 105

Demesmerising or Awakening Processes 113

On the Persistence of Mesmeric States 116

On Mesmeric Susceptibility 119

On the Mesmerisation of Inanimate Substances 123

Of Mesmeric Dangers 131

Cross Mesmerism 143

Isolation 145

Mesmeric Delirium or Dream 146

On the Application of Mesmerism to Disease 149

Diet 180

The Prudent Management of Clairvoyants 181

On Mesmeric Operators 189

APPENDIX.

Mesmeric Influence 193

Natural and Mesmeric Sleep compared 195

Mesmerisation of Animals ib.

Homoeopathic Medicine prescribed 196

Hypnotism and Electro- Biology 197

Divining Chrystals 199

INTRODUC

The following pages are not written for the instruc-
tion of mesmerisers who have more knowledge of
mesmerism than I have ; — I do not presume to teach
any such ; — I write to instruct those who are desirous
of learning the practice of the art, and have no better
means of gaining the requisite knowledge.

Some mesmerists have a notion that there is little
connected with the practice of mesmerism which requires
teaching — that if persons are only shown how to make
downward passes, they can be safely left to do as they
may with a patient ; others, equally conversant with the
subject, are of opinion that all who attempt the prac-
tice of mesmerism should receive sufficient preliminary
instruction — to this latter opinion I decidedly adhere.

I have had a tolerably extensive experience — quite
enough to enable me to form an opinion — and I declare
that I would not permit a person ignorant of the mes-
meric conditions and phenomena to practise upon my
wife or one of my children, unless I was present to
direct and control the operation. That which I would
not like done to my own I cannot recommend as proper
to be done to others. The query here suggests, " Why
would you not permit an ignorant person to practise ?
what harm could he do ? can persons be injured by the
application of mesmerism?" My reply is, "That there
are some few persons, of exceedingly delicate and sen-
sitive nervous temperament, who might be seriously
inconvenienced, and probably injured, by an improper
application of the mesmeric influence." I cannot pos-

B

2 MESMERISM.

sibly conceive or believe that a perfectly healthy and
competent operator, who already knows what he ought
to do — what end he proposes to obtain — how best to
accomplish that end — understands the peculiar abnormal
state he may induce on his subject — how to control and
manage that state — and how to restore the patient to
his natural state, — I cannot conceive that such operator
is at all likely even to inconvenience his patient. It is
not the operation of the instructed but of the uninformed
mesmeriser which might be injurious to the subject of
the experiment. The particular sort of mischief to be
apprehended I will explain in my subsequent pages.
Fortunately, the information necessary to qualify a
person for a safe and proper mesmeriser is not difficult
of acquisition. I hope in the following chapters to
succeed in placing much that it is needful the mesmeric
operator should know before the reader, and in so plain
and simple a form that he will not have any difficulty
in comprehending it. I advise all who wish to exercise
the art to make acquaintance with practical mesmer-
isers, — get permission to see their cases, and learn
from personal observation ; but when this is not attain-
able, they will find enough information in the following
pages to guide them safely in the practice.

MESMERISM, or ANIMAL MAGNETISM,

(For the terms are synonymous), viewed as the expres-
sion of a fact, is the name given to a peculiar power or
force, or action of one human organism upon another
human organism.

Viewed as a science, it is knowledge which em-
braces the physical and the metaphysical — knowledge
of the laws, forces, or mediums Avhich unite the mate-
rial with the spiritual— knowledge of the phenomena

MESMERISM. 3

which are evoked by the action of spirit upon matter,
and their reaction — knowledge which leads on where
anatomy and physiology leave off — knowledge of the
existence of certain imponderable principles or elements
which are essential to, and co-existent with, vital
organization — knowledge of the action of these elements
upon the man, psychically and physically — knowledge
of the effects which follow, when the harmony of their
action is disturbed.

Viewed as an art, it is the exercise of a human power
by which one person may bring another into certain
abnormal states, and which sometimes establishes very
peculiar sympathy betwixt the operator and his subject,
placing them in a singular relation to each other.

By the exercise of this influence the operator can
often overcome the voluntary power of the subject;
that which he wills, the subject does, either involun-
tarily, or against his wishes. It seems as if there were
two human organisms and but one human will whilst
the subject is under the influence.

The mental or cerebral state of the operator may also
influence the subject who is in mesmeric relation with
him, from the sympathy established by their mesmeric
relation, and that when the operator does not desire
or wish it ; we then have a sympathy of perception and
feeling. The operator is angry, the subject feels
either vexed or angry likewise; the operator is sad,
and so is his subject; the operator is merry, his sub-
ject feels joyous ; the operator is calm, his subject is
composed ; the operator drinks, his subject swallows ;
the operator puts various articles into his mouth, his
subject tastes them all ; the operator applies odours to
his nose, the subject smells them ; the operator is hurt,
the subject feels the pain; the operator thinks, the
subject perceives his thoughts, and, if capable of speech,
responds vocally to them. Furthermore, the sympathy
or nervous communication of the parties establishes
physical relations betwixt them, and this physical com-

b2

4 HISTORY.

mtuiity may be productive of great benefit to invalids
who are subjected to the mesmeric operation. Suppose
the subject is weak, and suffering from pain and disease,
the operator being strong and in vigorous health : the
operator mesmerises the subject, that is, he induces the
peculiar relation betwixt them — the patient becomes
impressed by the physical condition of the operator — it
would seem as if a portion of his health was trans-
mitted to the sufferer. The operation is concluded by
the influence expending itself spontaneously, or on the
operator restoring the patient to his normal state, by
removing or suspending the persistence of the influence.
The patient now feels stronger and better ; his pains
are gone, or greatly relieved ; organs which had tar-
dily performed their functions manifest symptoms of
activity, — they have received a healthy stimulus. The
operation is repeated daily, or at certain intervals ; the
patient is dosed, not with drugs, but with health;
these doses of health sooner or later drive out disease,
and the sufferer is cured, if not already too seriously
diseased for organs to admit of a restoration of their
proper functions.

The exercise of the power is an art ; the principles
on which the art is based form a science. Experience
teaches us the art, — experience alone will not acquaint
us with the science.

I purpose chiefly to treat of mesmerism as an art,
and it is therefore unnecessary that I should do more
than briefly allude to its

HISTORY.

It is generally believed by those investigators who
have enquired into and considered the subject, that
mesmerism, as an art, has been known and practised

HISTORY. .)

at all times, even in the earliest ages. There are
passages in the historical narrations of the Old Testa-
ment which certainly refer to its use ; and particularly
the wrathful reply of Naaman to the messenger of
Elisha (2 Kings v. 11) :— "Behold, I thought he will
surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name
of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place
and recover the leper ;" or, as the Hebrew text renders
the passage, " Behold, I said to myself he will surely
come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the
Lord his God, and move up and down his hand over the
place and recover the leper." This seems to establish
the fact that it was customary amongst the Syrians,
b.c. 891, to move the hand up and down (or in other
words, make the mesmeric passes) over a diseased per-
son, to cure the disease. The evidence is also tolerably
conclusive that it existed amongst the ancient Egyptians
and Greeks; and, probably, amongst them it was not
only an art, but known as a science. There are occa-
sional traces of it from these periods until it was
formally claimed to be received as a science by Mesmer,
during the latter part of last century. A knowledge
of the power has certainly existed in the East amongst
the Brahmins from the earliest periods to which any
records of their history refer down to the present time.
Travellers also have narrated circumstances which
justify a belief that the power is exercised by some
Australian tribes and other ignorant races of the pre-
sent age.

If we accept the mesmeric power as a natural
faculty we can hardly see how it could have been
otherwise than known to the ancients. We have yet
to learn that men are now possessed of any natural
power which they had not formerly. They might be
ignorant of railroads worked by steam engines and
electric telegraphs, but it is safe to assume that they
had much valuable knowledge which was afterwards

b HISTORY.

lost, and which we moderns have yet to re-discover.
They — the ancient learned— were shrewd observers of
natural phenomena, and deeply studied the occult
properties of organic and inorganic matter ; they
gathered knowledge from nature direct, and could not
have failed to know this power of the most highly
organised material existence — man.

Mesmerism, therefore, is not an invention ; it is not
a modern fiction devised by some cunning doctor to
gull the public and increase his own fame, but an old-
fashioned fact — as old fashioned as men's wearing noses
to their faces, or listening with their ears, or using their
other senses.

Mesmer, after whom the science or art in this
country is named, was a German physician ; he may
have derived his knowledge of the subject from
personal experience, or from the writings and com-
munications of others ; he cannot be considered a
discoverer of it, for nearly a century before Mesmer' s
time it was practised by Valentine Greatreakes and
others. Mesmer, however, is entitled to the credit,
not only of insisting on its truth as a science, but of
publicly promulgating its utility as a curative agent.
He made cures and converts to its truth, and taught
its practice to others, from whom it spread all over the
continent, and even found its way into this country.

Amongst the writings of the so-called Hermetic
Philosophers — the Alchemists, as Paracelsus, Crollius,
Libarius, Kircher, and others — frequent allusions and
observations occur which justify a conclusion that a
knowledge of mesmerism existed amongst them. John
Baptist Von Helmont, Lord of Merode, &c, who was
born at Brussels in 1574, and by whose labours che-
mistry underwent another revolution and medicine
assumed an entirely new aspect, appears to have been
well acquainted with the ecstatic sleep and clairvoyance
of the moderns ; and in one of his numerous works,

HISTORY. 7

"The Magnetic Cure of Wounds,"* lie expressly asserts
the existence of a duality of "magnetism" or "will
principle — the one existent in the soul, the other in the
flesh and blood of man ; and to the latter he entirely
attributes the phenomena of clairvoyance ; and after
quoting from the work of his preceptor, Martin del Rio,
the Jesuit,-)- an account of

" A youth who in a state of extatic sleep saw his mother,
though many leagues distant, and upon returning again to
himself perfectly remembered all things his fancy met with in
this more than Pisgah vision, and reported many signs to attest
his real and presential visit to his mother" —

affirms that this clairvoyant power

" Is able to transplant the spirit of the outward man, the
magnetic will principle of the flesh and blood, to a determinate
object though at a vast distance ; and that this magnetic power
lies dormant in the flesh and blood, as in potentia, unless roused
and excited by the imagination exalted by fervent desire or
some other art equivalent to affection."

And further, when treating of " coma vigil or cata-
lepsy," he states —

N That in man there sits enthroned a noble energy, whereby
he is endowed with a capacity to act, extra se, without and
beyond the narrow territories of himself, and by the natural
magic of his will enabled to transmit a subtile and invisible
virtue, a certain influence that operates upon an object at a
very great distance,"

And to this magnetic or will principle he alone attri-
butes curative powers, and not, as is often stated, to
an artificial or extraneous magnet of any kind.

Van Helmont also anticipated the soul-seeing powers

* Translated by Dr. Walter Charlton, Physician to King
Charles I., under the title of " A Ternary of Paradoxes," and
published in 4to., 1650, who in the prologomena expressly styles
the work a " Theory of Magnetism, or the secret power of
natural actives working on analogous and determinate passives,
by invisible emanations or influential energy transmissive to
remote distances."

f " Disquisitionum Magicarum," 3 vols. 4to., 1617.

8 HISTORY.

of Davis, Madame Hauffe, and others ; and in the 13th
section of his treatise " On the Vision of the Soul,"
relates that —

" Having panted incessantly for eighteen years with an
intense desire of knowing the nature of his soul, ' in a vision he
had a sight of his soul,' in the figure of a man whose whole was
homogeneous, actively discerning, a substance spiritual, crystal-
line, and lucent by its own native splendour, but enshrined in a
second nubilous part, as the husk or exterior cortex of itself."

The first distinct early work on the subject is Dr.
Robert Fludd's Mosaical Philosophy, originally pub-
lished in Latin in 1574 ; and of which an English
translation was published in 1659. Mesmer was
deemed by many of his disciples to have obtained his
knowledge of the subject from this work. The word
magnetic was already used by Van Helmont, and Mes-
mer used the term animal magnetism to designate the
power or force. Mesmer considered the effects produced
to be attributable to a universally-pervading magnetic
element, and invented a system which he enunciated
in twenty-seven propositions, embodying his ideas of
its principles. Some of these ideas were possibly
original, some probably borrowed from the predecessors
referred to. The truth of many of his propositions is
at the present time well established ; of a few we may
say, in an apposite quotation, " not ascertained, perhaps
doubtful, but not as yet disproved." Any magnetist
reading these propositions will perceive that Mesmer
had well studied his subject; but he has been con-
sidered to have introduced, in its practice, addenda
which tended to confuse and mystify, rather than
increase its efficacy. Be this as it may, Mesmer made
many cures, and caused a popular belief in animal
magnetism to spread.

I have now before me a volume of magazines pub-
lished in London in 1790, containing three articles
upon animal magnetism, from the tenor of which it is
quite plain that not only the curative power thereof was

HISTORY.

well known, but clairvoyant states as well understood
as at present. Dr. Sibley, in a curious work on physi-
ology and pathology, published towards the end of the
last century, devotes a whole section to the cure of
diseases by animal magnetism. Dr. Bell, in 1792,
published a theory of animal magnetism. Dr. de
Mainaduc is considered to have introduced the sub-
ject under the name of animal magnetism into England
in 1787. Mr. Hollo way, who was a clerk in the Bank
of England, and brother of the celebrated engraver, is
reputed to have acquired a respectable fortune by prac-
tising and teaching the art before the present century
commenced. I lately was favoured by a visit from a
lady who practised mesmerism for the cure of rheu-
matism and some other diseases sixty years ago. She
was a pupil of Holloway's, and informed me that the
grandfather of the present Charles Mathews, the come-
dian, was a fellow pupil. I also know of a lady,
residing at the present time near to town, who was
cured of a cancer — or an alleged cancer — by mesmerism
fifty years ago, in London.

A commission was appointed in France in 1784, by
order of the king, Louis XVL, to enquire into and
report on the subject. Amongst the men who com-
posed it were the great Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier
the chemist, and others of acknowledged celebrity in
literature and science. How far these men were com-
petent for the task imposed upon them is matter of
opinion, which will be decided differently by those
who support and those who refuse to entertain the
system. Men may be good chemists, able natural
philosophers, and conversant with physiology to the
full extent to which it is taught in the best schools,
and yet be incompetent to serve as impartial jurymen
on a subject which their peculiar knowledge does not
reveal, — nay, they may become prejudiced against a
subject which does not appear to harmonize with their
previous experiences. Their report has been considered

10 HISTORY.

as having exploded the system ; this is an error. They
seem to have admitted certain of the facts presented,
but denied the theory on which it was presumed the
facts could be explained. One of their number, the
celebrated botanist Jussieu, who had paid great atten-
tion to the proceedings, refused to sign the report,
drew up a counter report, in which he declares, from
the experiments he had witnessed and made, his con-
viction not only of the truth of the facts averred, but
that there was some force or action of one organism
upon another, by which the effects were induced.
Notwithstanding this report being on the whole unfa-
vourable, mesmerism continued to spread in Germany,
France, and other parts of the continent. It was
also introduced and practised as a curative agent in this
country ; but I suppose had no advocate at that time
who was able or willing to promulgate its use and
truth, consequently it was known but to few.

In 1825, a second French commission was appointed
to examine and report on the subject of animal mag-
netism. They met in 1826 and continued their in-
vestigations until 1831, when they made their report,
which was signed by nine physicians — members of the
commission. This report, which is drawn up with
considerable ability, confirms the reality of all, or
nearly all the phenomena contended for by mesmerists.
It is too long to quote entire, but a few extracts may
be interesting. The commissioners say, in Article —

" 8. — A certain number of the effects observed have seemed
to us to depend on magnetism alone, and are not reproduced
without it. These are well attested physiological and thera-
peutical phenomena."

" 9. — The real effects produced by magnetism are very va-
ried; it disturbs some, tranquillises others; most usually it
causes the momentary acceleration of the respiration and circu-
lation; temporary convulsive movements of the fibres, resembling
electric shocks ; stupor, more or less profound ; somnolence ;
and, in a small number of cases, that which magnetisers call
somnambulism. ' '

HISTORY. }1

" 13. — Sleep brought on with more or less readiness, and
established to a degree more or less profound, is a real but not
a constant effect of magnetism."

" 14. — We are satisfied that it has been excited under circum-
stances where those magnetised could not see, and were entirely
ignorant of the means employed to occasion it."

" 16. — D. — Most of the somnambulists that we have seen
were completely insensible. One might tickle their feet, nos-
trils, and the angle of the eyes by the approach of a feather,
pinch their skin so as to produce ecchymosis, prick it under the
nails with pins put in to a considerable depth, without their
evincing any pain, or being at all aware of it. In a word, we
have seen one person who was insensible to one of the most
painful operations of surgery, and whose countenance, pulse, or
respiration did not manifest the slightest emotion."

"29. — Considered as an agent of physiological phenomena, or
as a therapeutical means, magnetism must find its place in the
cadre of medical knowledge, and consequently medical men only
should practise it, or watch and superintend its employment, as
is done in the northern countries."

The commissioners, in concluding their report, ask
if they have used proper precautions to avoid being
taken by surprise ; whether, with their feeling of con-
stant distrust in the examination of phenomena, they
have scrupulously performed their duty to the Academy
of Medicine, who appointed them, and to themselves.
They reply in the affirmative : they say —

" With what distrust more marked, or more cautious, could
we have been influenced? Our conscience has answered us aloud
that you could expect nothing from us which we have not done.
Then we have been honest, accurate, faithful observers."

" . Certainly we do not presume to make you share our

conviction regarding the reality of the phenomena observed by
us, and which you have neither seen nor followed, nor studied
with us, and as we did."

" We do not, then, claim from you a blind credence in all
that we have reported. We conceive that a considerable portion
of these facts are so extraordinary that you cannot grant it to
us ; probably we ourselves would presume to refuse you ours,
if you came to announce them at this tribunal to us, who, like
you, had neither seen, observed, nor studied any of them."

" All wc require is, that you judge us as wo should judge

12 HISTORY.

you ; that is, that you will be convinced that neither the love
of the marvellous, nor the desire of celebrity, nor any interest
whatever has guided us in our labours. We were animated by
motives of a loftier character, more worthy of you, — by the love
of science, and by the necessity of justifying the hopes which
the Academy had entertained of our zeal and our devotion."

The whole of this report is worthy perusal, and will
be found in Teste's Manual of Animal Magnetism,
which may be obtained at Bailliere's. There is also an
English translation of Teste's work, by Dr. Spillan, to
be had from the same publisher. The cautious spirit
which pervades it would lead one to believe that the
commissioners gave an assent, rather reluctant than
otherwise, to the truth of the phenomena which had
been presented for investigation. The plain matter-of-
fact manner in which they express their opinion, so
different from that which would characterise the style
of the enthusiastic supporters and advocates of the
system, entitles this report, when we also consider the
men from whom it emanated, to the respect and credit
of their professional brotherhood in this country. We
may wonder now — and our posterity certainly will —
that any member of the British medical profession
should have been found willing without any examination
to pronounce that a fraud and delusion which had been
carefully investigated and cautiously declared upon as
animal magnetism has been by this French Medical
Commission. However, the fact nevertheless remains,
that many have done so, and a few still do so.

To Dr. Elliotson, unquestionably, the honour apper-
tains of having dragged mesmerism from the obscurity
in which it was hidden amongst us. The doctor ori-
ginally was shown some mesmeric facts by the late
Mr. Chenevix. Mr. Chenevix had seen mesmerism prac-
tised by the Abbe Faria, in Paris ; had subsequently
been convinced of its truth, and then became an ex-
perienced and devoted practitioner. He contributed
five papers on the subject, in the London Medical and

HISTORY. 13

Physical Journal for 1829, and was most earnest and
zealous in his endeavours to promulgate and establish
a conviction of the truth and utility of mesmerism. Un-
fortunately for the cause Mr. Chenevix died in 1830.

After the foundation and opening of the London
University, and hospital in connection with it, Dr.
Elliotson, who had already been acknowledged by
public opinion and the common consent of his profes-
sional brethren, as standing at the head of the profes-
sion, accepted the office of a physician to the new
hospital and filled the first chair as one of the pro-
fessors to the medical school. Whilst connected with
the hospital and school, an introduction obtained by
Baron Dupotet (a French magnetiser), in 1836 or
1837, to Dr. Elliotson, turned his attention again to
the subject, of the truth of which he had been con-
vinced by the facts Mr. Chenevix had shown him ; and
he forthwith proceeded to ascertain for himself, by
experiment, that certain wonderful phenomena could
be produced in the human organism by the exercise of
this power, and that its use could enable the physician
to cure pleasantly and easily diseases which had baffled
his skill in the application of ordinary methods of cure.

Those who know John Elliotson, know that he is
not too vain to learn a useful truth from any source ;
that he is not to be convinced on insufficient evidence ;
but, when once convinced, that he is not to be deterred
from expressing his conviction — and acting upon his
conviction if he sees a reason for so doing. Dr. El-
liotson ascertained, by experiment, certain facts apper-
taining to mesmerism, and the fact of its curative power
was certainly not the one which interested him least.
Convinced of this fact, he forthwith reduced it to prac-
tical utility, and introduced mesmeric treatment within
the wards of the University Hospital, restoring health
to poor patients, who in all probability must otherwise
have been discharged as incurable. The doctor not only
mesmerised patients himself, but caused his clinical

14 HISTORY.

clerks to assist him, and would have soon established
the utility of mesmerism as a branch of medical treat-
ment beyond the possibility of dispute, had he been
permitted to continue the hospital practice of it.

Many men (and possibly not a few of the medical
profession) are so unfortunate in their cerebral organi-
zations, that they are incapable of originating ideas, or
even of comprehending them when originated by others,
until their truth and utility is established and univer-
sally received. These men learn, whilst youths,
that which others teach them, — and, as men, practise
that which they have learned ; — they are incapable of
acquiring knowledge by themselves, and when their
beards grow stiff, become too stubborn and vain to be
taught by others. These men, whether engaged in
politics or physic, in commerce or the arts, stand still
or move in a circle ; they understand not progression
— they abominate it. To them, "that which is new
cannot be true ; that which is true cannot be new."
They cannot become leaders, and are awkward followers
in a new path. The more the leader pulls onward the
more they hang back. They may have their use — as
the dull horses suited for the mill-track have.

Now, in this year of 1837, there were certain men —
more or less answering to this description — connected
with the management and duties of the hospital ; and,
moreover, there were also enough of them to form a
majority. Dr. Elliotson's genius had heretofore led
him to avoid the rotatory movement ; he liked onward
progression, and had devoted himself to the improve-
ment of medicine as a science, and of its practice as an
art. Whilst his exertions were confined to the beaten
path, his professional brethren were content that he
should move onward, and were not unwilling to follow.
His introduction of mesmeric treatment into the hos-
pital practice was viewed as an imprudent innovation
on the routine system ; it was as if a shell had been
thrown into the mill-track which might blow the stiff-

HISTORY. 15

kneed horses into a path where the circular motion
was not possible. This majority stayed not to enquire
if the doctor's new treatment was good treatment, —
they cared not that it cured the patients, — they feared
it might lead to progression in a straight path which
would not bring them back to their starting point, —
they also feared "what Mrs. Grundy might say ;" —
and, after some time spent in caballing and counselling,
they — the majority — determined, though few were
medical men, that they knew better how disease should
be cured than their head physician, and eventually
resolved that mesmerism should no longer be practised
within the walls of the hospital. On Dr. Elliotson
hearing of this resolution, believing it was the phy-
sician's privilege to determine how his patients should
be cured, and that it would be derogatory to the
respectability of his profession, and to the character
of a gentleman to submit to such dictation, he instantly
resigned his professorship, and withdrew from all con-
nexion with the hospital, its school, or concerns ;
generously requesting that the fees received or due
from his class might be returned, and that his pupils
would accept as a gift that portion of his course which
had already been attended by them. Thus ended the
doctor's connexion with the quondam liberal institution
and its hospital.

Dr. Elliotson, by the bold and uncompromising
course he pursued, had become the champion of the
mesmeric truth in this country, and he was forthwith
assailed by the medical periodicals of the day and the
great bulk of the medical profession ; as they could
not strangle the worthy doctor in person, they deter-
mined at least to stifle the truth which he maintained
with the dirt which they raked up and cast against it
and its champion. Bitterly cruel and malignant were
the sarcasms and falsehoods which they unsparingly
used towards mesmerism, and Dr. Elliotson for sup-
They no longer considered his claims to

16 HISTORY.

their respect — hitherto acknowledged by them to be
his due for a long course of earnest and valuable la-
bours in their own field ; he had become in their eyes
an innovator, — he had ventured to step out of their
beaten track, — and they, therefore, hesitated not to
treat him as their professional predecessors had treated
Harvey and Jenner. The success which has attended
these efforts can be well estimated, by comparing the
position which mesmerism held in 1839 with that now
occupied by it at the present time. History has told
how Harvey and Jenner were treated, and living facts
tell how the truths for advocating which they were
vituperated are now esteemed ; and thus also it is, and
must be, with mesmerism and Dr. Elliotson. It must
be, for mesmerism is a truth. Truth, like a diamond,
is not easy to be crushed ; it may be defiled with the
mud of falsehood and calumny — what then? — time
dries the mud, it cracks and falls away, — or honest
investigation clears it off, — and there stands the dia-
mond shining in its pristine brilliancy.

Though Dr. Elliotson could not convince those of
his brethren who would not be convinced, he led his
pupils, some few of the profession, and many intel-
ligent non-professional gentlemen, to a knowledge of
mesmerism. Many had already obtained a knowledge
of it on the continent, and all controversy and attempts
to talk and write it down still kept the subject in
agitation ; it was no longer in the keeping of those
who would permit it to be smothered ; the more it
was agitated the more it was examined, and its truth
being easily ascertained on practical investigation —
and that investigation easily made — it was constantly
in all circles receiving that investigation and making
new adherents.

Dr. Elliotson soon had associated with him in his
labours to disseminate the truth some few bold and
uncompromising spirits in his profession, amongst
whom Dr. Ashburner stands prominently forward. No

HISTORY. 17

man has pursued the subject in a more philosophic
spirit of experimental enquiry than this gentleman.
He has laboured hard to unravel the association ex-
isting between the active agent or agents of the mes-
meric phenomena and the imponderables — electricity
and magnetism.

I am not in a condition to explain to how great an
extent Dr. Ashburner has been successful in showing the
identity of the powers, — he has done enough to prove
that certain applications of these powers will induce
like effects to the mesmeric of the human influence.*
He has been most earnest in promoting the use of the
mesmeric power as a curative agent, and made many
cures by his personal application of it.

In India, Dr. Esdaile has done wonders. He had
heard much of mesmerism ; he had never seen an in-
stance of any one of its phenomena, but like an honest
rational man was willing to believe there might be
truth in the averments of Elliotson and other men,
whose statements he would have credited if they related
to other matters. He just tried the truth by making
an experiment for himself and succeeded in putting
an ignorant patient to sleep. Persevering, he educed
other phenomena with other patients, and eventually
when mesmeric books reached him from Europe he
found the phenomena were not new ; — that whilst
working independently by and for himself, those very
phenomena, which others had often observed and were
familiar with, were presented to his notice as the effects
of his power: a beautiful corroboration of the law,
that though mesmeric effects differ in individual eases,
the aggregate or general results are the same all the
world over. Dr. Esdaile, convinced of the truth and
use of the mesmeric power, proceeded at once to its ap-
plication, with the perseverance and energy of a modern

* A work on this branch of the subject by the celebrated
Baron Von Reichenbach with additions by Dr. Ashburner, is.
now published. Also an edition with notes by Dr. Gregory,

C

18 HISTORY,

Hercules. He had an admirable field to labour- in, and
has obtained a far larger amount of personal experience
than others have had an opportunity for, in perform-
ing comfortably extraordinary operations of the most
dangerous and severe description on patients who have
undergone them painlessly, because totally unconscious
of any suffering ; and successfully, because the patients
lived through and recovered from them. The reader
must seek the particulars in the pages of the Zoist, —
my allotted space will not permit me to give them,
nor is it my intention to copy out narrations which are
so easily attainable in a more elaborate form.

Ten years since the believers in mesmerism in this
country were few ; those who were acquainted with its
practice still fewer. It required some moral courage for
a man publicly to avow his belief in its truth, for the
acknowledgment was certain almost to bring upon him
ridicule, and from many persons slander and calumny*
It was denounced from the pulpit as satanic ; the pious
regarded the mesmeriser as in league with the Prince
of Evil, and he incurred some risk of being excluded
their society, as savouring too strongly of moral
brimstone to admit of safe association. The medical
profession, as a body, stigmatised mesmerism as " a
humbug" u a fraud" " a dangerous delusion" and much
worse ; and called those who ventured to practise it
" rogues" " fools" " charlatans " "silly dupes" or
" madmen." Few people even knew what mesmerism:
meant, and few indeed were aware that it was a healings
power fraught with blessing to mankind, — that it was
a key by which the philosopher might unlock the
secret recesses in which are stored some of the most
sublime mysteries connected with human existence.

At the present time mesmerism is no longer de-
nounced from the pulpit, but very generally believed
in and understood by the clergy ; it has many kind
and benevolent, and successful practitioners in that
body, from high dignitaries to curates. Some of the

HISTORY. 19

best treatises on the subject in this country are from
the pens of clergymen. I cannot presume to say how
it may be understood or esteemed by the highest per-
sonage in the realm, but amongst the aristocracy it is
generally patronised. They receive it as a curative
agent and many in its ranks are successful and enthu-
siastic practitioners. In whatsoever class of society
we look, we still find mesmerism understood, exercised,
and generally believed in. Gradually the medical
body are coming round ; few of them now venture to
consider mesmerism as all fraud ; they generally admit
that "there certainly is something in it," although
they neither understand the phenomena or useful
application of this something. In India, in 1848, mes-
merism received distinguished encouragement from the
government, who gave Dr. Esdaile an experimental
hospital, and a mesmeric hospital is now established
at Calcutta. A mesmeric infirmary is established in this
country at Bristol, and another is in active operation in
the metropolis. In nearly every provincial city or
town in the kingdom some mesmeric practitioner may
be found. Physicians and surgeons in the country,
eminent for their knowledge and skill, have publicly
joined the mesmeric ranks, practise mesmerism, or
recommend its adoption where it may be needed by
their patients. Mesmerism may now be fairly con-
sidered a fait accompli, — freely acknowledged, and too
firmly established to again sink into decadence.

This being fairly a comparison of the kind of reception
afforded to mesmerism ten years ago and at the present
time, we may, without claiming any special gift of
prophecy, venture to anticipate its progress as attained
ten years hence. Ten years hence we may reasonably
expect that mesmerism, as a therapeutic agent, will
have supplanted much of the present medical treat-
ment ; that it will be established as an indispensable
branch of medical knowledge ; that no student of
medicine will be admitted as qualified to practise until

c2

20 HISTORY.

he Has been proved, by competent examiners, to have
acquired a certain amount of knowledge of the laws of
mesmerism and its application to disease ; that every
medical school will have its mesmeric professorship ;
that a large majority of its present medical opponents
will have seen the folly and cruelty of their opposition
and have turned round and become earnest adherents ;
that those medical journals which have become noto-
rious for trying to extinguish mesmerism with puerile
articles, or lying and abusive assertions, instead of
rational argument, will be defunct, having gone too
far to retrace their steps, and blackened their cha-
racters too deeply to admit of reception by honourable
men. We may expect that if any grey-headed anti-
quated specimen of the present medical generation be
found then opposed to mesmerism he will be respected
by his brotherhood for his past professional services,
be good-humouredly laughed at for his adherence to*
bygone prejudices and absurd notions, be left to repose
on past-earned laurels and past-earned fees, and merely
be pointed at as a remaining example of that which
once was. We may also venture to hope that a great
increase of knowledge in the useful application of the
mesmeric power will have been attained ; that many
of the difficulties now presented in its practice will
have been surmounted; and that a higher tone of
moral feeling — a more earnest character of Christian
brotherhood — a more practical observance of the
Divine command "to love our neighbours as ourselves,
and do to others as we would be done unto," may have
pervaded society, softened down its present asperities,
and rendered it more capable of receiving and appre-
ciating the great truths of mesmerism, and using it in
that pure and kindly spirit of benevolence which alone
can render it God's good gift to both human administrator
and receiver.

OF MESMERIC STATES.

By Mesmeric State I mean to express that the patient
is put by the mesmeric influence into some peculiar
state ; — into a state of existence differing in some one
or other respect or respects from the habitual waking
state which is natural to him.

Whenever we, by the exercise of our mesmeric power,
artificially induce on a patient an abnormal state, such
state may be considered a mesmeric state. We are
assured by Dr. Elliotson, one of the best authorities
on the subject, and this assurance is amply supported
by others who know, and therefore can safely vouch
for the assertion, that there is no state induced by
mesmerism which is not induced by other causes, or
may not occur spontaneously to the human organism
without even any apparently exciting cause ; I do not say
without cause — we cannot have any effect whatsoever
without a cause for it — but the cause may be hidden
from us. States, attended by phenomena resembling
in appearance some which are induced by mesmerism,
may be caused, as is well known, by the inhalation of
certain vapours — as of ether, chloroform, protoxide of
nitrogen, and others ; — also by the exhibition of certain
vegetable substances, as opium, belladona, Indian hemp,
stramonium, and others ; — also by certain applications
of imponderable agents, — as electricity, galvanism, the
peculiar force emanating from steel magnets, from
electro-magnets, from chrystals. Disturbed cerebral
action, as violent mental emotions, strongly excited
feelings, and even imagination, may induce states
similar to the mesmeric in certain sensitive persons,

22 MESMERIC STATE!?.

without the direct interference or action of another
party. No doubt need exist that atmospheric and
telluric agencies, which we cannot detect, induce like
states ; and many believe that psychical or spiritual
influence may do the same.

Some of these states, when they occur as it were
spontaneously because we do not know the exciting
cause, are considered and classed as diseases, — and no
doubt are diseases, and sometimes serious ones.

We must therefore consider that the human organism
is more or less subject to pass into abnormal states,
and that mesmerism is merely one of the agencies
which will induce these phenomena.

Some writers on animal magnetism enumerate seven
distinct magnetic states ; some do not admit of so many
— they limit the number to four ; others think there
are many more. The number of distinct states must
entirely depend upon the distinctive character of the
phenomena which enable a distinct line of demarcation
to be drawn. If every difference of state is to be con-
sidered a distinct state, it would not be easy to specify
any given number of states, — the variations of state
which occur in different subjects are so numerous. I
have succeeded in mesmerising a large number of
persons, more probably than the majority of mes-
merisers have done, and I do not remember to have
had any two patients who were exactly alike as to their
mesmeric states, if I except when in the deep trance
or unconscious sleep. In this state patients are all
nearly reduced to one common state, — that is, when
this state is perfect. Nor need this surprise us : no
two human faces are exactly alike, — no two organiza-
tions exactly alike ; — we can hardly, therefore, expect
to find other than some difference manifested in the
phenomena educed from different organizations. As
far as my own reading and experience goes, I think all
mesmeric phenomena and effects may be grouped or
apportioned into three distinct states; and when dif-

MESMERIC STATES. 23

ferences are observed, we may consider them as pro-
ceeding from a mixing in the individual case of the
phenomena observed to prevail in one state generally.

There is no possibility of laying down any special
rule as to the time which may be necessary in order to
obtain a decided mesmeric state, nor of the time that
the patient will remain in the state when it is induced,
nor by anticipation of the character of the state.*

When philosophers subject inert matter to their
experiments, they know that like causes will produce
like effects ; and therefore, when they have accurately
ascertained the results of any given operation, they
can with certainty predicate the results of a similar
experiment conducted under similar circumstances. We
need not doubt that in mesmeric operations the same
law will hold. If we obtain like causes we shall have
like effects. As we are not operating either with inert
materials, or on inert matter, but with living active
matter — matter, as a law of its existence, ever changing,
•ever undergoing mutations — the like conditions are not
frequently to be had ; and thus it is difficult and unsafe
to attempt to establish a positive rule as to the effects
which may be produced in an individual case.

When a subject is mesmerised he may sleep pro-
foundly,— he may be deprived of all voluntary power,
of all sensation, of memory ; or, again, he may not
sleep, he may retain his sight and hearing, his memory
and consciousness, and yet be unable to feel or to
move, or give any expression of his consciousness.
In the first case he sleeps ; in the second he remains
awake, but is nevertheless under the mesmeric influence.
Again, he may pass into another state, in which some
normal faculties are quiescent, and extraordinary ab-
normal faculties become active, — he is under mesmeric
influence and in a mesmeric state. What shall we say
of him? Is he awake in the common acceptation of

• This remark is equally applicable to all mesmeric
operations.

24 MESMERIC STATES.

the word ? He is not. Is he asleep ? He is not. Is
he in a state between sleeping and waking ? He is not.
His state is a paradox when expressed in customary
terms ; nevertheless his state is a living reality. He
sleeps apparently — and is yet at the same instant of
time awake — never more widely awake. We shall see
how this is when speaking of the state.

I have just said that all mesmeric phenomena and
effeets may be apportioned as peculiar to one of three
distinct states.

One of these states is characterised by sleep more or
less intense, and is designated as "the mesmeric sleep."

Another state is the paradoxical one, called formerly
— and still by many — somnambulism ; but as there is
often somnolence with somniloquism and no ambulism
in the case, it is usually termed " the sleep-waking
state"

The other state is, when persons are under the
mesmeric influence, often deeply mesmerised ; and are
neither in the mesmeric sleep, nor in the mesmeric
sleep-waking state. They are still in their natural
state as relates to mind, — they are no longer in their
natural state as to their relations betwixt mind and
body. This state when strongly marked is not of
eommon occurrence, (unless by the design of the mes-
meriser), but I have had cases of it when I could get
no other state. I forget, or am ignorant if it has been
particularly named by mesmeric writers, and therefore
describe it as " the mesmeric waking state" as this
expresses the fact, and will distinguish it from the
sleep and the sleep-waking states.

Though all mesmeric phenomena may be classed as
belonging to one or other of these states, we must
remember that in many cases the phenomena are mixed
or alternate ; a subject may be partly asleep and
partly in sleep-waking, or he may be partly awake and
partly asleep ; or partly in sleep-waking and partly in
his normal waking state. This mixing of the phenomena

MESMERIC SLEEP. 25

of the three states causes a great variety or difference
amongst individual mesmeric cases.

THE MESMERIC SLEEP

Is the least complicated form in which the mesmeric
influence manifests its effects ; and it is also (I merely
.give my individual opinion), the most useful and desir-
able form, if we desire mesmerism for its curative
agency. I would never wish to induce any other state
if alone consulting the welfare of each individual
patient. This state varies in intensity from mere
drowsiness to the deep mesmeric trance. The lighter
form of the affection can only be considered a mes-
meric sleep because it is induced by a mesmeric
process. The patient sleeps quietly, or the sleep may
be unquiet and disturbed, just as in natural sleep. You
address the sleeper, — or touch him, — or make a noise,
— and he awakes ; he has a consciousness perhaps of
something which has been said or done in the room
whilst he slept, just as often happens to persons who
indulge in an after-dinner nap in their chairs.

The deepest form of the affection is quite different
from common natural sleep. The sleep is so intense
that the mind seems overwhelmed as well as the body.
All consciousness, sensation, and volition are suspended ;
the involuntary nervous action alone remains ; and here
we have an example of the safety, and consequent
superiority of mesmerism over ether, chloroform, and
such like agents. If our influence could as totally
suspend the involuntary nervous action as it does the
activity of the sensory and voluntary nerves, death
must ensue. But we cannot overpower this action; we
can reduce our subject to a state resembling that of a
corpse, as to the power of moving, acting, and feeling.

26 MESMERIC SLEEP.

but here the resemblance ceases. The heart still beats ;
the lungs play ; the stomach digests ; the other viscera
perform their functions ; the intestinal peristaltic motion
continues ; life is still there, and remains there in its
wonted integrity, its harmony undisturbed by mental
emotions or bodily sufferings. The state is a state of
peace, — a state of undisturbed repose.

Physiologists teach us that life is sustained by the
action of the involuntary nervous system ; that life is
expended by the action of the voluntary and sensory
nervous systems. We thus see how it is that sleep is
so eminently restorative to the vital powers. During
sleep they gain, during vigilance they lose. We may
thus also perceive how it is that the deep mesmeric
sleep proves more beneficial to invalids whose nervous
power is weakened, than natural sleep ; it is less dis-
turbed, and more profound. Dr. Elliotson tells us that
there are cases in which the patient suffers, if the sleep
is made too deep, or the sleep be too much prolonged ;
but adds that as a general rule he would always deepen
the sleep as much as possible, and prolong it, or allow
it to expend itself; he would never awaken a sleeper
unless there were good reasons for so doing. Thus
prejudicial effects from too long or too deep sleep may
be considered as the exception to a general rule.
Reasoning on the cause requiring the exception, may
it not be that some patients suffer from a disturbance
of nervous power, rather than from exhaustion of it,
and that too much sleep, by increasing the supply of
nervous energy beyond a certain point, tends to increase
the intensity of disturbed force ? In such patients we
have cases where the production of rigidity and great
-muscular efforts in the sleep-waking state become
advantageous. This opinion is put forth as mere
hypothesis, but I do not see that it is improbable.

The deep sleep is not only useful as a state in which
the patient becomes refreshed and strengthened, if
debilitated ; but it is especially serviceable in cases

mesmkhk: sleep. 27

where there is disturbance from moral causes. A large
portion of diseases may be traced to some disturbing
influence arising from moral causes, over which the
physician, whose only remedy is potion or pill, has a
very limited control. Opium and henbane, his sheet
anchors in such cases, often cause delirium instead of
sleep; and certain mischievous effects resulting from
their use counterbalance frequently the good which is
anticipated. But here the deep mesmeric sleep is a
safe and valuable remedy. The mind, wrapped in
unconsciousness, ceases to derange the physical func-
tions by its morbid influence ; and the brain, in a state
of repose, regains its healthy tone. The mesmeric
sleep does not impair, but repair the digestive powers ;
it does not arrest, but promotes the secretions ; it does
not constipate the bowels ; it does not alter the healthy
constitution of the blood ; it is not succeeded by any
distressing reaction.

Now, why is the mesmeric sleep so much more safe
and efficacious as a remedy than the opium remedy,
or the hyosciamus remedy, or the ether remedy, or the
chloroform remedy, or any other analogous remedy
from the drug dispensers ? Simply, I take it, because
all these agents derange the involuntary nervous system
whilst acting on the sensory and voluntary ; and, as
before stated, the mesmeric sleep acts on the voluntary
and sensory systems, and does not derange or suspend
the involuntary.

It is not possible to over-estimate the value of deep
mesmeric sleep, when used either as a primary or
auxiliary agent in the curative treatment of diseases.

There is another important use of the deep sleep,
namely, the power of annihilating pain, by rendering
the sensorium unconscious of it. When surgical
operations are performed on a patient in this mesmeric
state, he feels no pain whatsoever, is saved from
the shock which acute pain inflicts on the nervous
energy, and also from the detrimental moral effects

28 MESMERIC SLEEP.

attendant on the previous anticipation of pain, and the
present endurance of it. Whilst the patient is thus
blessed, the self-same sleep is renewing and re-invigo-
rating the vital powers, and so preserving the nervous
equilibrium that inflammation rarely occurs during the
persistence of the sleep. If the patient be reduced to
the proper mesmeric state there is no need to fear that
he will awake before the operation is completed. Why
should he ? He feels nothing ; he is quite unconscious ;
nothing disturbs him. If it be necessary or desirable
to awake him, the mesmeriser easily and speedily
restores him to consciousness, and as easily consigns
him again to his sleep of oblivion, and keeps him in it,
not only without detrimental effects, but with positive
advantage.

The deep mesmeric sleep is not only applicable to
prevent pain and ensure invigorating repose for patients
undergoing surgical operations, but will be found
equally useful in cases where persons are suffering
from the painful effects of accidents. It will at once
be apparent to the reader that it must necessarily be
so ; as far as the distress from pain is involved, it can
matter little whether it be inflicted by accident or by
design. Serious accidents are generally attended by
circumstances causing cerebral disturbance ; the system
has received a shock, both mentally and physically,
and here again we can have nothing better than sound
sleep. It by no means follows that sleep, in cases of
accident, is the only remedy. The surgical treatment
must be dictated by the necessity of the case, and the
judgment of the surgeon. The sleep is a useful auxili-
ary, and, when it can be induced, will aid the surgical
treatment more effectually than the administration of
any drugs at present known — if rest, the calming down
of excitement, and restoration of vital energy are
desirable.

The deep mesmeric sleep has been used successfully,
and is unquestionably admissible and desirable, to pre-

MESMERIC BLEEP. 29

vent the agonies of parturition being sensibly felt. I
say admissible, because an idea prevails amongst fathers
and matrons that the deep sleep and unconscious state
induced must retard or impede the natural efforts.
Such an idea cannot occur to any medical practitioner
at all conversant with the subject ; he knows that the
muscular action of the uterus and its expulsive efforts
are principally excited by the involuntary nervous
system, and therefore cannot be prevented by the
mesmeric sleep, which does not directly interfere with
the action of the involuntary nerves. Instances are
by no means uncommon of mothers being delivered
in the unconsciousness of an epileptic attack, or of
syncope (a fainting fit), and unconscious delivery under
the influence of ether, and subsequently of chloroform,
were recently common enough. I need not offer com-
ment on the advantage and blessing of enabling a poor
woman to pass through this time of trial without expe-
riencing the agonies she must needs endure when
awake and conscious. Where is the husband who will
not hail with delight so great a blessing for his wife,
when he is assured that there is no hidden danger
attending it to counterpoise the open and manifest
advantage ? The other benefits of re-invigorating and
composing sleep follow, of course, as they do in pain-
less operations.

I have endeavoured to point out, though very con-
cisely, the utility of deep mesmeric sleep, by stating
that it not only restores exhausted nervous power, —
calms and overcomes nervous excitement, — renders
fearful operations less fearful, by causing the painful
application of the surgeon's instruments to be unfelt, —
increases the probabilities of a patient's recovery from
a dangerous operation, by subduing the accessory
circumstances, which often alone bring about a fatal
termination, — that it can be made available as a potent
auxiliary to surgical treatment in severe accidental

30 MESMERIC SLEEP.

injuries, — and that we may, by its aid, deprive of its
terrors a part of woman's destiny.*

I do not believe mankind are acquainted with any
other agent or agents by which so much can be accom-
plished to alleviate the ills and sufferings of humanity
which are consequent on sickness and disease. That
the deep mesmeric sleep does all that I have just
claimed for it is a verity, patent and notorious to
thousands; the more querists will examine into the
subject, the stronger will the evidence of its truth be-
come, if they examine rationally — that is, to judge of
it impartially, unbiassed by preconceived opinions.

When the sleep is not sufficiently profound, and
cannot be made so deep as to prevent the patient being
conscious of pain — and this often happens — it may be
still deep enough to give the subject of it all the ad-
vantages of soothing and strengthening. We must also
remember that the mesmeric process itself, when applied
to invalids, is known to have a specific curative power,
and that they may receive the benefit resulting there-
from even if no perceptible mesmeric state be at all
induced by the process.

Generally there is not anything to be observed in
the mere appearance of a person in mesmeric sleep,
which would lead a stranger to suppose he was in any

* Call you this last nothing, husbands and fathers? Can
you not remember how the anticipation of an event which
should fill most of your hearts with gladness has been alloyed
by the dreadful certainty of the agonising sufferings which your
partners must endure ere you can rejoice ? Will you not call
the means by which these sufferings may be endured uncon-
sciously— and consequently no longer to be considered suffer-
ings— means perfectly safe and beneficial — will you not call
these means a blessing which we should receive with thank-
fulness, a bounteous gift of that All -merciful Providence which
permits His sinful creatures to feel the pains and punishment
entailed on them by their waywardness, and still in His love
closes not the door of mercy and compassion on their sufferings ?
Will ye not accept this mercy as the gift of God ?

MESMERIC SLEEP* 31

other state than in a natural sleep, provided he is placed
in a comfortable position, and the limbs comfortably
arranged ; but some patients in this state remain so
motionless, and breathe so quietly, that an idea of
death may be presented to the mind of the observer.

On examining, the eyelids are closed; the eye is
either convulsed upwards in its orbit, or directed
straight in front ; sometimes, but more rarely, the eye
is in frequent motion. I have observed, in the greater
number of my subjects, that in the profoundly- deep
unconscious sleep the eye is not drawn upwards, but
remains fixed, directed to the front, the pupil rather
dilated, and resembling the eye of a person just
deceased. The optic nerve has no longer the power of
conveying impressions to the brain ; or, otherwise, the
brain is no longer capable of receiving an impression.
You may suddenly expose the eye of the sleeper to a
strong light, but there is no contraction of the retina ;
you may approach your finger, or a pointed instrument,
or even tickle the conjunctiva, or the orb of the eye
itself with a feather, still there is no inconvenience to
the patient made evident by any sign ; he is evidently
not conscious of that which you may be doing. An
experienced mesmeriser hardly requires other evidence
of the insensibility of a patient than an observation of
the eye. The limbs of persons in this state are no
longer subject to the sleeper's volition ; the muscles
are generally quite flaccid ; raise the hand and arm and
let fall suddenly, and it falls in obedience to the laws
of gravity, just as the limb of a newly-deceased person
might do ; you may throw about the arms and legs,
just as you would the arms and legs of a doll stuffed
with bran.

Sometimes the patient is catalepsed ; that is, what-
soever position you may place his limbs, head, or
trunk in, will be retained until you choose to alter the
position, provided you bend him into a position allow-
able by his anatomical structure — you must not expect

32 MESMERIC .SLEEP.

to bend a bone. He appears in this state as if made of
plastic clay or wax ; he is unconscious of any effort to
retain the position given to his limbs; indeed, they
seem to remain in the position given without any effort
being made, either consciously or unconsciously — as
if the physical laws which govern the being in his
natural state have ceased to actuate him.* The given
positions may be retained for hours without inconve-
nience, or any ill effects being subsequently felt ; but
sometimes it is otherwise.

In other cases of deep mesmeric sleep the patient's
limbs may evince rigidity. Extend the arm, hold it
extended a few seconds, and it remains extended as a
catalepsed arm would. Try again to bend it, you can-
not ; it is stiff and rigid, as if made of wood or metal.
The limb may remain extended and rigid, without
inconveniencing the subject for a long time. You may
suspend a moderate weight, as of ten or fifteen pounds,
to the wrist, it is sustained without distress. In the
deep mesmeric sleep we generally have either flaccidity,
catalepsy, or rigidity developed ; and we should avail
ourselves of one of these conditions as a test, taken in
conjunction with certain other characteristics, before
we venture to pronounce the patient in the deep sleep,
deep enough to undergo a serious operation unconsci-
ously. We may sometimes find a person in deep sleep
and quite insensible to pain, who is neither flaccid,
catalepsed, nor rigid. Take up his arm, and suddenly
leave it, and it does not fall, he replaces it himself;

* Persons are often catalepsed without being put to sleep ;
they can then explain their sensations. To them the catalepsed
limb seems to have lost weight and feeling, and as if it no longer
belonged or appertained to them. They see the operator flexing
their arms, perhaps, but feel it not. The patient says, " I don't
feel as if I had got any arms." A sensation, as of lightness or
loss of weight, is commonly enough developed in mesmerised
persons. They say they feel so light that they do not seem to
be standing, or sitting, or walking, — they feel more like flying
or floating.

MESMERIC SLEEP. 33

put it into some trying and uncomfortable position, he
does not let it remain, he changes the position. He
may still be in a state fit for operating on ; he is an-
noyed and mechanically seeks to escape the annoyance,
but has no consciousness of that which annoys him
and will have no remembrance of it when awakened.
He is profoundly asleep, but the sleep is not so profound
as when either of the phenomena just alluded to can be
developed ; and when insensibility for an operation is
desired, we should endeavour to bring out one of these
phenomena if possible. I have rarely seen a limb that
was flaccid, rigid, or catalepsed, sensible of pain, even
when the state has been induced on the limb of a
waking person.

When the sleep induced is not so deep, it may pre-
cisely resemble a sound natural sleep ; you may have
great difficulty to arouse the sleeper by shaking or
pinching ; he may even utter brief expressions indicat-
ing his sense of being disturbed, as " be quiet," " oh !
don't," and such like, and relapse into sleep as soon as
you leave him, and when really awake have no remem-
brance of having been annoyed. But young mesmer-
isers must not suppose a patient in this state fit to
undergo a painless operation ; were he subjected to
very severe pain he would probably be aroused to
consciousness. If a sleep of this character cannot be
deepened, it may be taken advantage of in brief opera-
tions, such as a tooth extraction, or a simple cutting,
or puncturing, as a means of weakening the feeling of
pain, although it does not annihilate all sensation.
Every invasion of true sleep is a suspending of con-
sciousness, and consequently of sensibility. In what-
soever degree we suspend consciousness, in the same
degree do we lessen the severity of pain. This state
will not generally serve for long operations ; but when
the mesmeriser cannot get any deeper state, he may
accept of that which he has, and try to extract some
use from it, if circumstances render it desirable.

34 MESMERIC SLEEP.

In the deepest state of sleep all consciousness, and
sensation, and volition are abolished ; there is no
seeing, no smelling, no tasting, no hearing, no power
of moving, no memory, no perception, no reflection —
consequently, no thinking. There is no longer any
active intellectual life ; the active life of the purely
animal organism is, however, not at all impeded or
deranged ; its functions are all duly in operation, as
perfectly and generally more perfectly, than when the
intellectual organs are in action; consequently the
being lives, but his state maybe figuratively considered
as a living death. This description of deep mesmeric
sleep is a true picture of the state and its attendant
phenomena. In the numerous degrees or gradations
which occur between this state and the lightest form of
mesmeric sleep (mere dozing, mesmerically induced)
all kinds of variations and modifications of these phe-
nomena may be observed, and this is in strict accord-
ance with the variations of analogous phenomena which
occur when there is no mesmerism in the case. What
are all these suspensions of faculties, but so many
instances of temporary paralysis? Paralysis occurring
spontaneously, or from causes which we cannot control
or ascertain, is a disease. Paralysis induced artificially
or designedly, by means which we can control and
ascertain, is a mesmeric state. The natural paralysis
sometimes attacks the auditory nerves, we then have
total or partial deafness. Sometimes the optic nerves
are invaded, we then have total or partial loss of vision.
Again, it may deprive of smell, or of taste, of feeling,
or of motive power ; the paralysis may be partial, or
it may be total, and it is precisely the same with the
artificial or mesmeric paralysis. In the deepest sleep
we have the analogue of total paralysis. In the various
modifications of the mesmeric paralysis we see a
resemblance to the various forms and modifications
of natural paralytic disease.

The artificially-induced paralysis generally (but not

MESMERIC SLEEP. 35

universally) follows in a certain sequence. The first
effects of our influence, whilst the sleep is invading, is
paralysis of the levator muscles of the eyelids ; they
droop, then close, and the patient is unable to raise
them ; then paralysis of motion follows — the patient's
limbs feel benumbed, he can no longer move them,
and the sleep deepening he has no desire to attempt it.
Next in succession we have paralysis of sensation ; if
you tickle or pinch him he feels it but slightly, then
not at all. As the process advances, the influence
extends to the organs of speech ; he can no longer
reply to your question if you address him though he
may be conscious of it. Go on, and he loses his senses
of taste, smell, hearing, and total loss of consciousness
supervenes. You have now got your subject into the
deepest sleep that can be obtained — I cannot conceive
of any sleep more profound, unless it be the sleep
of death. I am satisfied from repeated experiments
carefully made that hearing remains whilst any con-
sciousness exists ; that is, consciousness of external
actions. We can say nothing as to his internal con-
sciousness ; he may still know who he is, and the
conditions in which he is placed, or he may not — this
we cannot determine. As he has lost all power of
expressing consciousness, and as he has no memory of
his mesmeric state when awakened, he cannot know —
nor can we — if much, if little, or if any consciousness
has been left to him. All volition and sensation except
hearing may be suspended in the patient, and con-
sciousness accessible through the ears remain. We
have not often any opportunity of testing this, because
the accession of the complete state in general takes
place rapidly — often suddenly ; but I have had cases
in which the gradations of the phenomena have been
distinctly and beautifully marked in the order in which
I have given them.

To explain how we may be satisfied as to this point
— or, rather, how I became satisfied : we must first

36 MESMERIC SLEEP.

understand, as already stated, that the mesmeriser's
power does not influence directly the involuntary
nervous action of his subject, and that expression of
the human countenance is in a great measure involun-
tary. The blush of shame which mantles the cheek of
the modest virgin when an impure idea is uttered in
her hearing — the expressions of anger, of indignation,
of pity, of happiness, of joy and mirth, which are
plainly pictured in the face, are all involuntary ex-
pressions— facial portrayments of mental emotions.
These portrayments, instinctive or involuntary expres-
sions, may remain and bear evidence of consciousness
when no voluntary or sensorial signs of perception are
left. As an instance, I once had a female patient, an
innocent and modest young woman, whom I kept asleep
for a whole month, with very brief waking intervals
allowed. She was nearly blind from an amaurotic
and structural disease of the eyes which had resisted
the ordinary amount of mesmerism but yielded to this
extraordinary doze. She was originally difficult to
mesmerise ; it took me a full hour the first time to
establish any decided mesmeric state. Repetition of
the process increased (as it generally does) her sensi-
bility, until I could do as I liked with her. I could
induce any state, from sleep-waking and an imperfect
clairvoyance to the deepest unconscious sleep, and this
either suddenly or by regular gradations. I could
make her rigid, or catalepsed, or leave her muscular
structure flaccid, just as I pleased. I could cause a
glass of water, specially mesmerised, to operate as a
brisk aperient ; could put her into deep sleep by mes-
merising the seat of a chair on which she might
afterwards sit without her previously knowing that it
had been mesmerised. A mesmerised handkerchief
placed on her head had the same effect. I could cause
her the deep sleep,- by my will alone, at short distances
as a few hundred yards or less, without her having
any possible knowledge of my intention. No mes-

MESMERIC SLEEP. o7

meriser could have desired a more suitable subject for
experiments. She had been housemaid in the family
of a friend who claimed my interest in her behalf. I
took lodgings for her in a house near to me, and
engaged the good woman of the house to attend and
do what was needful for her safety and comfort. I
never visited her unless in the presence of this matron,
(a safe rule to obviate the wicked scandal that idle
persons especially delight in), and it was to her (the
matron) that my experimental remarks were addressed.
If I mesmerised Emma powerfully, and with energetic
will, she was in the deepest sleep in two or three
seconds ; when I acted quietly, by gentle passes, no
more will exercised than sufficed to raise and depress
my hand, from ten to fifteen minutes were consumed
before the deep sleep overpowered her. By this slow
process the ultimate state came on, step by step, in
regular sequence ; if I desisted at any part of the
process, the induced state remained or persisted without
further advancement. Here was a beautiful opportunity
for observation; and I considered, under the circum-
stances, that I had a right to avail myself of it.
Gradually have I brought on, by the slow process, the
different degrees of mesmeric state, and noted and
marked their character and succession. When volition
and sensation were so far paralysed that Emma was
unconscious of tickling her feet, or of a feather or a
bristle titillating the membrane of the nostrils, — when
she tasted not cayenne pepper on her tongue, — per-
ceived not the vapour of strong ammonia or Scotch
snuff applied to her nose, she still evinced consciousness
if it were addressed through her sense of hearing. I
have, after Emma had been subjected to these tests with-
out any signs of perception being apparent, designedly
addressed to Mrs. P., the matron in attendance, re-
marks calculated to wound poor Emma's feelings, such
as " that I thought her deceitful and ungrateful ;
doubted if she were modest and virtuous : believed

38 MESMERIC SLEEP.

she could see, and shammed blindness," and such like.
On uttering these observations the expression of grief
and vexation on her countenance was most strikingly-
marked, and plainly showed that she both heard and
understood me. Again, changing the subject, I would
observe " that I did not mean the previous observa-
tions ; that I was only in fun when I spoke ; that I
really thought her a good little girl — a modest girl;
that she certainly was very pretty and just now looked
particularly interesting," and so forth in this strain.
Presently the look of grief would give place to one
indicating pleasure, and even when much gratified a
smile would be present on her face. I would then
desire Mrs. P., her attendant, to undress her and put
her to bed, not to mind my presence ; or say something
to the matron which, under ordinary circumstances, I
would not have repeated in the presence of any young
unmarried woman. Here again the red suffusion of
Emma's neck and face, her deep blushing, plainly
indicated that I was heard; and if I spoke of her
being undressed, a frown told she disapproved of any
such procedure. Having thus tested her power of
hearing and consciousness as still remaining, I deep-
ened her state by two or three strong passes before her.
Now on testing, there was no indication of auditory
perception left; and beyond this state I could not
advance. These experiments were repeated almost
daily for the month, and always with the like results.
I have also obtained the same effects in other cases ;
but this one may suffice as an example.

When we have succeeded in apparently getting our
patient into mesmeric sleep, we should not be in too
great a hurry to awaken him ; nor should we at first
attempt to speak to him ; we should calmly allow the
state to which he may be predisposed to develope
itself, undisturbed by any needless interference on the
part of the mesmeriser. I have often seen patients
who were fast verging into unconscious sleep aroused

MESMERIC SLEE1'. 39

by some trifling noise or interference, and great diffi-
culty has been experienced afterwards to re-induce a
similar state.

If the patient sleeps soundly and there be no urgent
necessity for awakening him, leave the sleep to expend
itself; this it will, in the majority of cases, do in an
hour or two — and you can ascertain the character and
intensity of the sleep the next time that you mesmerise
him. If, however, it be necessary to arouse him be-
fore the sleep passes off, you can take the opportunity
to ascertain the state which you have induced, as he
must be disturbed under the contingent circumstances
at any rate. Every practised mesmeriser has his own
mode of ascertaining the state induced, and if the
means he employs are not mischievous or troublesome
to the patient, the particular method is matter of little
importance. As I write not for experienced operators
but for the inexperienced, I may subjoin, as a guide,
my own mode of proceeding. My patient has been
placed in a comfortable posture, which he has quietly
retained for the period during which he has appeared
to be asleep. His hands are in an easy position, beside
or before him. I raise one hand and suddenly let it
fall if it will. If it fall like a lump of inert matter the
probability is that my subject has entered into mes-
meric sleep — if it remain as it were suspended where I
left it, it is either catalepsed or rigid, and the same
probability holds. I now attempt to raise an eyelid ;
if the lid is strongly closed and resists my slight effort
to elevate it, I desist; if I succeed in observing the
eye, and it is either staring unconsciously, or it is
convulsively turned upwards, the white portion of the
orb only visible — in either case I have an additional
proof that my patient sleeps. On these trials, should
the patient replace his hand in its previous or some
new position, or shut his eye as it were voluntarily, and
give evidence of being disturbed by my testing expe-
riments, he is not in deep sleep, and as I am about to

40 MESMERIC SLEEP.

arouse him it is useless to pursue any other testing
process. I apprize him that he sleeps, by telling him
so, and that I am about to awaken him. He probably
knows that he is not asleep, though in a sleepy or
drowsy condition, and can awaken himself without my
assistance. I, nevertheless, proceed to demesmerise
him as if he really required it, and presently declare
him awake again and enquire if he feels sufficiently so.
I have a purpose in doing this : he has been made
somnolent and might remain so for some time if I did
not dissipate the mesmeric effect; I also create an
impression in his mind that a demesmerising process is
necessary to restore him from the induced state — and
the impression thus created may assist at a future
operation, unconsciously to him, in aid of my intention
when he may really need demesmerising — the act of
awakening and the demesmerising process becoming
mentally associated.

Should he, however, really appear to be soundly
asleep, I seldom test him rigorously on the first
occasion, I reserve this for a second or third oppor-
tunity, when the state to which he is predisposed shall
have been properly established. We must remember
that although in some cases patients pass at once into a
perfect mesmeric state, in the majority of instances
their ultimate state is only determined after several
mesmeric operations — and until it is established our
interference may hinder its development. I dwell
upon this point because, as is well known to expe-
rienced mesmerisers, young operators sometimes do
mischief by their impatient curiosity; they should
practise self-restraint and never be in any hurry. I
speak from personal experience, having myself, when
I knew not better, done that which I now caution my
readers against. When, on a future occasion, the
patient passes quickly and easily into his sleep, we
may proceed to ascertain his state — but cautiously and
gently, not rudely and roughly. We can only know

MESMERIC SLEEP. 41

how many of his senses are in abeyance by appealing
to these senses. If he remain quiet and does not
disturb himself when we disturb him — if tickling his
ears and nose with a feather, his hands and the soles
of his feet, does not incommode him, we may safely
infer that he does not feel it and can try a smart pinch
or two. If he appears insensible to this we can apply
our tests more decidedly, but we must never forget
that although he does not feel the pain now he may feel
it when awakened, if we have been trying him too
sharply ; we should not therefore take advantage of
his helpless state and inflict an injury which he would
resent or refuse to permit were he awake, or which we
would not choose to have inflicted on our own persons
if in the same condition. When the sleep is induced
to cure disease it is not necessary that we should do
so ; but if it be induced that the subject may be fit to
undergo a surgical operation unconsciously, we are then
justified in employing a sufficiently severe test to war-
rant us in submitting him to the knife and asserting
that he is capable of undergoing the operation without
feeling pain.

Every adherent to the truths of mesmerism who has
undertaken to become a practical expositor of its phe-
nomena should bear in mind that he owes a sacred
duty, not only to his subject, but to the cause ; and
therefore sedulously guard himself from falling into
errors either of omission or commission which might
be used to weaken or impair the belief in its utility or
efficiency. Whilst the truths of mesmerism have to
overcome so great an amount, not only of dishonest
medical hostility, but of honest — though ignorant —
medical incredulity, it is especially incumbent on the
mesmeriser to exercise a cautious discretion.

I trust that I have said enough relating to the
mesmeric sleep and of its conditions when deep or
perfect, to render it understood when presented to the
previously-uninstructed operator. The deviations from

42 MESMERIC WAKING STATE.

the phenomena of this state which sometimes occur
will be considered in our subsequent pages.

THE MESMERIC WAKING STATE.

As already intimated, I use the term state to express
that the individual has been put into a condition dif-
fering in some respect from the accustomed condition
which is normal or natural to him and a prefix to imply
the general characteristics of the abnormal condition —
that when the subject of the mesmeric operation sleeps
we call it "The Mesmeric Sleep;" when he passes into
a condition to be presently described, u The Mesmeric
Sleep-waking State •" and that he may pass into a
state in which he retains his full measure of conscious-
ness and memory, in which he may not have the
slightest drowsiness or tendency to sleep, and yet be
quite conscious that some change has been impressed
upon him by the mesmeric operation — a change of
such kind as to make him feel and the looker-on to
understand that he is no longer in his natural or
habitual condition. This state, for want of any other
or more appropriate designation, we will understand as
" The Mesmeric Waking State."

A partial paralysis is the most usual condition of
this mesmeric state, but it may occasionally become
total, as far as it relates to the power of motion and
sense of feeling. Your subject is quite unable to
move ; he sees you pinch or tickle him, and knows
that you are doing so, but cannot feel it or prevent
your doing it to him. In one of my own cases a
paralysis of this kind was as complete and total as
such an affection could be, but did not extend higher

MESMERIC WAKING STATE. 43

than the neck, excepting to the tongue. The patient
never closed her eyelids nor lost her consciousness for
a moment ; she could see, and smell, and hear, and
feel, if her head, or her nose, or her eyes, or ears were
touched ; but she could not speak or utter the slightest
vocal sound, either articulate or inarticulate, or move,
or feel lower than her neck. This state was induced
in five minutes or less ; it could not be dispersed in a
shorter period of time than half an hour by any method
which I knew of and employed. On one occasion I
had not sufficiently demesmerised her tongue when she
left my house. She came again two days afterwards
and still had, even then, a difficulty in speaking ; she
spoke with hesitation and a lisp, and said her tongue
felt as if something was tied to it which kept it from
moving. On every future visit she took care to observe
that her tongue was at liberty before she left me.

In other cases, the eyelids are closed so forcibly
that the subject cannot elevate them, nor can the mes-
meriser even, unless he demesmerises them. In some
instances the patient passes into a very happy comfort-
able state ; eyes closed, surrounded with bright light,
— that is, it appears to him that he is so; still retaining
his consciousness and memory, and capable of con-
versing and describing his own sensations. Indeed,
numerous variations in the phenomena may be observed
amongst any large number of instances, just as it occurs
in other mesmeric states.

This state is frequently observed when patients are
not sufficiently aroused from the other mesmeric states ;
they have their eyes open and see with them ; they
can move and feel ; they have memory and power of
reflection and reasoning and may therefore be deemed
awake, and are yet decidedly in an abnormal condition.
I know an instance of a young lady having been mes-
merised and subjected to phreno-mesmeric operations,
who was duly awakened afterwards but the mesmeric
effect or excitement not thoroughly removed, her

44 MESMERIC WAKING STATE.

Imitation had been stimulated, and the stimulus re-
maining, although she was quite rational and awake,
she could not restrain herself from mocking every per-
son who spoke in her hearing. As to this one faculty-
she had become a decided monomaniac. She was in a
condition most ludicrous to non-reflecting observers —
most distressing to herself. When asked "Why, what
is the matter with you, miss?" instead of replying to
she repeated the question. She was quite conscious of
doing so and aware that it was improper, but could not
prevent herself doing it. Had this young lady's Com-
bativeness and Destructiveness been large and equally
excited as her Imitation, she would have been, during
the excitement, a dangerous monomaniac. Had it have
been her Veneration, a religious one. This state re-
mained for three days, until an experienced mesmeric
operator saw her — who at once, understanding her
state, proceeded to re-mesmerise her, then awaken
her, and thus perfectly dissipated the artificial excite-
ment of the organ. I am not able to state how long
this induced state might have persisted, if it had not
been dispelled by the only proper means. Like all
other mesmeric effects the state would no doubt have
passed off spontaneously, if the subject were protected
from, cerebral excitement of every kind. I can suppose,
however, that in any similar case, if the excitement
were of Destructiveness, or some organ which would
lead the patient into mischief and danger, the results
might have been serious ; especially if any medical
practitioner, ignorant of phrenology and mesmerism,
had been called in to treat the case and subjected the
patient to medical maltreatment for such affection.
All external violence as corporeal restraint, or appli-
cations as cupping or blistering, would not only be
inoperative to reduce mesmeric excitement, but exceed-
ingly likely to increase and perpetuate the state.

Some persons are so susceptible of mesmeric influences
that it is possible to excite their cerebral organs with-

MESMERIC WAKING STATE. 45

out inducing sleep, or sleep-waking, or any degree of
unconsciousness. We have them then in the mesmeric
waking state, and have temporarily induced a species
of monomania. Nor is the power of inducing this
state without its useful application. A cerebral organ
may naturally be too sensitive, or it may be not suffi-
ciently active, and if the derangement of cerebral
function be excessive, the subject will be afflicted with
mental disease of a character and intensity determined
by the organs affected and the intensity of the affection.
Some persons are timorous and bashful, or melancholy
to a degree which may be seriously afflicting ; others
so quarrelsome and irritable that they are exceedingly
annoying acquaintances ; and others may be frequently
seen, who, though not insane, are decidedly eccentric
on some subject or mode of thinking and acting. If
these disturbed states, as to their cerebral character,
are sufficiently deepened, we have decided hypochon-
driasis, or monomania, or melancholia, or even insanity.
All these states may result from positive physical disease
— as structural lesions, inflammation, congestion of the
brain; but on inducing the states artificially by mes-
meric excitement, we prove to a certainty that these
self- same states can exist independently of such
diseases ; that other forces can operate to produce the
effects ; that there are forces capable of disordering
mental faculties without causing any appreciable disease
of the ponderable material of the brain. Every decent
medical practitioner knows that disease of brain func-
tion can exist without disease of brain structure or
brain substance ; but does every decent medical prac-
titioner know the forces which can cause a disease of
brain function ? It would be well for humanity
directed to the persons of afflicted patients were it
so. The customary professional phrase of "nervous
depression," or " nervous excitement," very possibly
expresses the fact as to the existing effect, but it leaves
us quite ignorant of the primary acting cause or force,

46 MESMERIC WAKING STATE.

and certainly conveys no specific information as to the
method of remedying the evil. Here your physician,
who has been too great a drone in the medical hive to
investigate phrenology and mesmerism is in darkness ;
the best he can do (he often does the worst because he
must do something) is to put the patient in such
circumstances as will not increase the excitement or
depression, and leave nature to cure if she can. It is
otherwise with the physician who does understand the
application of phreno-mesmerism ; though he has not
ascertained all the powers which can derange mental
faculties he has passed the threshold of investigation
and entered upon the path which leads to that know-
ledge ; he has learned how mind is disturbed in its
healthy action by a disturbance of some portion of
brain on the integrity of which depends the integrity
of some mental function ; he is able to localise the
portions of brain which are the seats or centres of
disturbed action ; he is able to reduce the knowledge
thus acquired to practical application and thereby
restore the normal integrity of the disturbed organ.
He knows not only what should be done but how it
may be done. He can designedly and artificially pro-
duce the very analogue or counterpart of the states
referred to and he can restore the organs which he has
disturbed to their previous state ; and when these states
are presented as diseases the same power operates.
The organ whose action is languid or torpid may be,
by mesmeric excitation, stimulated to healthy activity ;
the activity of the unduly-irritated organ can be by the
mesmeric process soothed into its healthy normal state
of action. When mental affections are caused by
physical disease of the material structure or ponderable
matter of the brain, the means, of whatsoever character,
which best remove the cause, must best remove the
effect ; but when mental affections arise from some
imponderable agency and there is no structural disease,
then the greatest prospect of success will be by the

MESMERIC WAKING STATE. 47

imponderable remedy ; the means used to remove a
supposed cause or state of brain which does not exist
must needs prove failures. This may all be received
very ill or very well, just as the prejudices or impar-
tiality of the reader disposes him to view it; but
nevertheless, all that which I have stated is supported
by facts — facts ascertained by the rigid observation of
those who are capable of judging and discriminating
betwixt facts and mere assumptions. The practitioner
who is ignorant of mesmerism and phrenology may be
compared to one who pulls against mental disease
with the force of a horse (mayhap the ass), whilst the
really qualified physician — the phreno-mesmerist — pulls
with the force of a locomotive engine. This is a homely
comparison but not an untrue one.

No class of experiments should be more interesting
to the physician than the impression of various mes-
meric phenomena on subjects in their waking state, as
the subjects can then describe their sensations and
there is no reason to suspect them the effects of imagi-
nation or dreamy hallucinations. Not only can the
cerebral organs be aroused into excessive activity,
but the mesmeriser's power can, in many subjects,
designedly induce a temporary paralysis of some one
or all of the senses, or of voluntary power. The
patient's arms or legs may be made as rigid as if hewn
from marble, or his jaws locked ; or he may be fixed
in his seat without any power of rising from it. He
can be forcibly drawn from a distance to the operator
by his traction, or repelled by his repulsive gestures.
These and various similar experiments are amusing
enough when merely seen from motives of idle curi-
osity, and ignorant persons may witness them, deem it
" all very funny," see nothing otherwise interesting, and
be excused in consequence of their ignorance ; but what
can be said of the physician? — for the man who has
received a medical education — who, on examining
these wonderful phenomena, does not at once perceive

48 MESMERIC WAKING STATE.

that such a power must necessarily have an important
relation to the cure of disease ? Will he not think that
the power which can lock a jaw and then unlock it
— deprive of hearing and then restore the faculty —
paralyse a limb and then remove the paralysis — may
be taken advantage of in curing similar affections when
they occur as diseases ? Every educated man who will
examine for himself, and ascertain the reality of the
effects produced, must conclude that the power has a
useful application ; and his inference can be supported
and shown to be correct by overwhelming facts — the
simple facts of numerous cures wrought by the appli-
cation of the power.

In this state, when patients are under the mesmeric
influence, it occasionally, but not frequently, happens
that even the higher, or most singular cerebral phe-
nomena— as intro-vision, medical instinct, clairvoyance,
pre-vision — may be educed. We cannot assume that
the patient is merely a sleep-waker with eyes open
instead of being closed, because the distinguishing
characteristics by which mesmerisers recognise sleep-
waking are not present ; I believe we must consider the
state as that of a mesmerised waking person in whom
certain sleep-waking faculties are developed. Here
again, we may perceive the truth of Dr. Elliotson's
remark, "that no state occurs under the influence of
mesmerism which does not occur spontaneously without
any mesmerising," by comparing such states with the
analogous ones recorded of Zchokke and others, who
possessed these faculties of clairvoyance and vision
of the past and future naturally. I have ascertained
by careful observation that a development of similar
powers has occurred in insanity without any mesmeric
excitation ; and the same fact is notorious as being
presented sometimes shortly before the decease of sick
persons.

The involuntary closing of the eyes is quite a com-
mon phenomenon of the mesmerised waking state ;

BLEEP- WAKING ST ATI'.. 49

and a partial or slight paralysis, as a feeling of numb-
ness in the arms or legs, is not unusual. The more
strongly-marked and extraordinary phenomena seldom
come forth but by the desire and design of the mes-
meriser, as already stated. Though the study of
patients in this state is exceedingly interesting, and
may be most useful to both physiologist and patholo-
gist, I cannot believe that it is as useful to the patient
himself as the sleep or sleep-waking ; it may be made
very mischievous, therefore the young mesmeriser
should not seek to produce it designedly.

THE SLEEP- WAKING STATE.

Like all other mesmeric phenomena, this state — or
an analogous one, more or less perfectly developed —
occurs naturally. It has been generally called som-
nambulism or sleep-walking ; and is very frequently
induced on patients who are subjected to mesmeric
influence. Under this influence the characteristics of
the state are opened to the investigation of the curious
without much trouble or difficulty. The more perfect
forms of the state, when they occur spontaneously, have
not been generally observed, because not of common
or frequent occurrence. Occasional and partial som-
nambulism, or more properly sleep-waking — such as
merely walking and talking in sleep — is not rare, many
persons are predisposed to it ; but the extraordinary
state of lucid sleep-waking, which is commonly enough
produced by mesmerisers artificially, is of very un-
common occurrence naturally. There are many phy-
sicians— old men in large practice — who never saw a
case of it in their lives, and never may have an oppor-

E

SLEEP-WAKING STATE.

do they know anything about the artificial
d by "the mesmeriser, with its occasional
onders, and probably never will ; they
see it, lest they might feel compelled to
st their wishes. If one of these men had
presented him to be treated as a disease
what should be done for his patient ; and
found ignorance of the subject would be
to do harm than good. Should he recognise
generally as a case of somnambulism he can
know nothing of its peculiarities ; and it has happened
within the last fe\£ years that men of high standing in
their profession have been too ignorant even to diagnosce
the state when called to it, and have treated a poor
helpless patient as a "shamming impostor," when their
duty was to have understood and tried to cure.

This state, when induced mesmerically, presents
abundance of varieties, as relates to individual cases,
too numerous to admit of distinct and separate classi-
fication. I am therefore, as I cannot do better, com-
pelled to confine myself to a description of the general
characteristics of the state.

It has been named in this country " Sleep-waking,"
because somnambulism, or walking in the sleep, is not
a universal feature of the state ; and if used to designate
a case in which it did not exist would be an evident
misnomer. A more appropriate name than sleep-
waking might probably have been devised, but with
this I have no claim to interfere ; the state was ascer-
tained and designated before I even knew that there
was such a mesmeric state. The state is one of apparent
sleeping and waking at the same instant of time, the
term sleep-waking does therefore really express the
state. The term is now understood, and almost univer-
sally adopted by mesmerisers in this country. Why
should we attempt an alteration ? or rather why should
I presume to do it ? I fear the attempt would savour
rather more strongly of egotism than a regard to utility.

SLEEP-WAKING STATE. 51

The principal feature of this state, which mesmerisers
consider as distinguishing it from a waking state, are
the closed eyes, and loss of memory or oblivion on the
part of the subject of all that he has heard or seen, or
said or done whilst in the state, as soon as ever he has
been aroused from it or restored to his natural state.

This feature is general but not universal ; it does
sometimes happen that the patient has more or less
memory of the circumstances which have occurred
during his sleep-waking. The mesmeriser can also
make him remember a portion if he desires it to be
remembered. When spontaneous memory is evinced
the state is probably not perfect ; some normal waking
faculty is mixed with the sleep-waking.

The eyelids are closed as if in natural sleep ; the
eyes generally are drawn upwards in their orbits ; the
white only visible if the lids are raised. The lids are
frequently closed so firmly that they cannot be elevated.
Though the eyes are drawn upwards and the lids closed
the subject has sight, or visual perception similar to
sight. When the state is perfect the patient sees quite
as clearly and distinctly as if his eyes were open, and
in some cases much more clearly and with a marvel-
lously-extended and exalted power of vision. When
the state is not so perfect he still sees, but his power of
vision is imperfect ; he sees objects as if in a mist ;
they seem to him cloudy and indistinct ; or he may
talk and reason and not be able to see. Some sleep-
wakers see only in the light ; some see best in a
partially- darkened chamber ; some see equally well in
light or darkness ; and some can see only in the dark.
As to actual perception, they see in each instance
precisely as if they used their eyes naturally, though to
see with their eyes in the natural way is impossible.
Many know not otherwise than that they are seeing
with their eyes ; but those who understand their own
state and mode of perceiving, generally say that they
do not see through the medium of the eye — that they

e 2

52 SLEEP-WAKING STATE.

see as well as if they used their eyes — that objects are
as distinctly perceived — but that their perception is in
the brain.

To affirm that a person can see without eyes would
be to assert an absurdity, only that it is an incontro-
vertible, positive, and perfectly-proved and established
FACT. A fact is a fact — truth is truth. There is not,
nor can there be, any absurdity in asserting a truth ;
men may deny it — they may ridicule it — they may
attempt to prove it impossible — they may meet it with
the sneer of self-sufficient ignorance — they may refuse
to examine it — they may hope to put down its advo-
cates with the cry of " humbugs !" " impostors !"
"credulous fools!" "madmen!" what of it? there
stands the truth ! — the living fact ! The truth cannot
be extinguished ; as well might they try to extinguish
the Eternal, as to extinguish His attribute Truth.
Vision, in the sleep-waking state without eyes, or a
power subserving every purpose of natural vision, is
a mighty fact. Mesmerisers can well aiFord to assert
it ; to stand upon it ; to smile, " more in sorrow than
in anger," at those who hurl present obloquy upon
them; knowing that the "fool" must ultimately fall
upon the heads of these detractors.

How this visual power is obtained — by what medium
exercised — I know not from any investigation I ever
made ; and I have had plenty of opportunities of
investigating, and have not neglected to use them.
Whatsoever hypothesis I may have formed it is not
for me to submit it here. I write to instruct as to
facts which are positively ascertainable rather than to
put forth hypotheses which may be more easily dis-
puted than proved.

The sleep-waking state is a state of sleep, inasmuch
as the subject has his eyes closed and powerless for
vision, and is oblivious as to memory of the state when
recalled from it. It is a state of vigilance, inasmuch
as he sees without using the eyes; and has reason,

SLEEP-WAKING STATE. 53

reflection, and mental perception, with other waking
powers ; he is thus, as it were, both asleep and awake
at the same instant of time. Sundry of the phenomena
which occur in the " Mesmeric Sleep" are also common
in this state. Certain of the phenomena which are
induced in the " Mesmeric Waking State" are also
induced in this state. It seems therefore a state com-
pounded of other states, — a double state, — in whicli
the ingredient phenomena of the other states are mixed
in a numerous variety and gradation of proportions,
and possessing its own distinct essentials. Assuming
this description of the state to be correct, we may see
how it is that a great variation of features — exceptions
to general rules — may be presented to us in individual
cases of sleep-waking. The perfect form of this state
is one of vigilance, with the exception of the loss of
memory and closed eyes as already described. Patients
in this degree of sleep-waking can eat and drink, and
talk and reason, and read and work, just as well as if
they were naturally awake, and in some cases much
better. The temporary transition from their natural
state is a gain instead of being a loss of mental faculty.
They have certain powers — increased or exalted per-
ceptions— which are known as clairvoyance, medical
instinct, intro-vision ; and when the faculties are highly
exalted, post-vision, with pre-vision or prophecy, which
may be exercised and are available either for the
benefit of themselves or for others ; and various other
singularly-interesting phenomena may also be educed
in this state.

Some sleep- waking subjects see as well in this state
as if they had the natural use of their eyes, but no
better ; they see all objects which are within the sphere
of ordinary vision ; this is Simple Vision in the Sleep-
waking State.

Other sleep- wake rs see not only the objects which
can be seen by those waking subjects who are in the
same apartment with them but their sphere of vision

54 MEDICAL INSTINCT.

is wonderfully extended ; they see through opaque
substances, as walls ; they see objects and their posi-
tions ; they see persons and their actions at extra-
ordinary distances; objects often which are excluded
from solar light, as in closed boxes and darkened
chambers. This is the faculty of Clairvoyance.

MEDICAL INSTINCT

Is usually found associated with clairvoyance and
intro-vision ; but it does exist (though rarely) when
the patient has not these faculties. The faculty is pre-
cisely that designated by the name. The patient may
be quite ignorant of anatomy, physiology, and pa-
thology, as taught by study and experience, and yet
be able to declare correctly the disease with which he
or others may be afflicted, and to indicate the proper
and most suitable means of obtaining relief or a cure.
His remedies are sometimes those which a physician
can understand and would sanction ; sometimes un-
thought-of agents, which are unknown to medical
experience, and perchance opposed to its practice ;
notwithstanding which these instinctively-prescribed
remedies often prove particularly suitable and effectual
in the case.

INTRO- VISION

Is clairvoyance directed to an examination of the
interior organic structure of the clairvoyant, or of
others whom he is able to bring within the range of
his clairvoyant perception,

1NTKO- VISION. 55

This is the most useful application of the power,
especially when associated with medical instinct.

Clairvoyants may be able very well to see distant
persons and describe their appearance, dress, and oc-
cupation, and yet not be capable of seeing into them
or describing their anatomical formation. Again, they
may have the power of describing correctly enough
the appearance and local site of every organ hidden
within the frame, and yet be quite unable to say if
each organ is in a state of health or otherwise, not
having the faculty of medical instinct. The clairvoy-
ants who have not the instinctive faculty have not the
knowledge which would enable them to recognise dis-
ease when they see it. We may still avail ourselves
of their intro- vision ; I have often done so, by making
them describe any difference in the appearance of a
given organ when compared with another presumed
to be healthy. I set up myself as the healthy standard ;
tell the clairvoyant to look at me, then at the subject
under examination, and describe the apparent differ-
ence. This is a useful practice with clairvoyants who
have even medical instinct, if they have also intro-
vision, as a corroboration of the declarations which
they make, and a check upon possible error.

I had a little patient, a girl of 15 or 16 years, E. S. —
She had a spinal disease, for which she had been an
out-patient at a dispensary, and of which she was
soon cured by mesmerism. I directed this case to be
mesmerised by a lady assistant ; and on the first occa-
sion of being mesmerised she passed into sleep- waking,
had both intro-vision and medical instinct as related to
her own case, but intro-vision and no medical instinct
as related to other persons, unless they had spinal
affections, which she always understood. On passing
into the room where she was being mesmerised — I
found her eyes closed — her mesmeriser said she was
asleep. I enquired if she were asleep from herself,
she replied in the affirmative. " Are you in the light

56 INTRO- VISION".

or the dark, Eliza S. ?" "It is not dark, 1 can see
you well enough.7' "What am I doing now?" —
holding up my hand and making other motions. These
she described correctly, and added, " Oh ! I can see
you plainly enough, sir, outside and inside too." "Can
you? — how do I look?" You look like a pig or a
sheep at the butcher's something, only your heart
keeps moving and your lights swelling." I made her
point to the situation of organs with her finger, — done
correctly. She was puzzled at the situation of my
stomach, as she had always thought " the bag the
food went into was down there," pointing to the
umbilical region. I next directed her attention to her
back, the state of which she described, as far as I
could judge, correctly enough; and intimated that it
could be cured by mesmerism and how it should be
mesmerised. I frequently afterwards, until she was
cured and mesmerism discontinued, used to direct her
to look at patients, and never knew her fail to describe
an organ as not "looking right," when the patient had
an affection which could have been perceived by any
one having a power of seeing the organ. I one day
presented a gentleman to her — a perfect stranger to
me — and as to whose health I was in total ignorance.
" E. S. look at my brain. Now look at that gentle-
man's. Do you see any difference ?" "No, sir, one
looks very much like the other." " Look at my heart
and then compare it with his heart." " They both
seem nearly alike ; his is rather paler at the bottom
part, but it opens and shuts much faster than yours
does." I addressed my visitor, " Pray, sir, have you
an affection of the heart?" He made no other reply
than to take my hand and place it over the cardiac
region where I felt his heart palpitating rapidly. He
suffered from nervous palpitation of the heart. Ex-
amined in the same way for another gentleman, she
said " His lungs don't look like yours ; I cannot tell
if they are diseased, in one part it docs not seem

INTRO-VISION. 57

right." " Point to the place and tell me what it looks
like." She indicated the place with her finger, and
said "It is redder than yours here, — it looks red like
liver." I enquired if the gentleman — who was a
stranger to me (and previously a sceptic on such
.subjects) — had anything the matter with his lungs.
He replied, "I fear the girl may be right; my medical
attendants are apprehensive that I have disease there."
I think he added that he had suffered from inflam-
mation of the lungs. I could multiply cases of intro-
vision to the extent of a goodly-sized volume were I
only to give those which have occurred in my own
personal experience ; the two just narrated are merely
adduced as examples of the way in which we may
extract some use from intro-vision when it is not
accompanied by medical instinct. Medical men would
wish nothing better than the faculty of intro-vision to
assist them in doubtful cases — could they only feel
universally assured of its existence. Their self-esteem
and prejudices would not be offended by seeing an
ignorant person dictate the medical treatment which
they believe to be peculiarly their right and within
their sole province. It is by those who have medical
knowledge that this faculty can be available for use.
The non-medical questor, when informed as to the
diseased appearance of an organ, is not any the wiser
as to the character of its particular disease ; his only
course will be to narrate clearly that which he has
learned to the physician or surgeon, who may from
other circumstances form an opinion of the probability
of the statement, and pursue a course of treatment in
in accordance with such opinion.

( 58 )

POST-VISION ; AND PRE-VISION, OR
PROPHECY.

By post-vision I mean that the sleep-waker has a
knowledge of circumstances which have already taken
place at some period antecedent to the time when he
is seeing them or narrating them, and of which he
has no natural knowledge or memory. These cir-
cumstances he sometimes sees as visions or pictures ;
sometimes he has only a perception, which he cannot
account for, of their having occurred. If he only
has a strong perception of the events, we may readily
apprehend that some lively imaginations can have the
details presented as an acting picture or vision. We
can all easily call up a picture of events which are
strongly impressed on the memory. Sometimes he
knows the events to be accomplished and past ; some-
times he knows no other than that they are actually
now taking place. Many instances of post- vision may
be legitimately considered as a re-awakening of
memory : the sleep-waker once knew them, has for-
gotten them in his natural state, and memory stimu-
lated or refreshed in sleep-waking reproduces them
to his consciousness. But there are other cases where
this attempted solution cannot be applied ; where the
events detailed cannot by any possibility have been
seen, or heard of, or made known to the sleep-waker
by any process natural to waking persons. In such
cases we are constrained to admit the existence of
this faculty.

Pre-vision, or Prophecy, is explained distinctly
enough by its name as to the character of the faculty.
Sleep-wakers' pre-visions have reference to all kinds
of events; some serious, some trivial and useless. I
have had ample and indubitable evidence, in my per-

POST-VISION AND PRE- VISION. 59

sonal experience, of the real existence of this faculty ;
but the same experience has taught me that there is
no mesmeric faculty equally liable to error.

Pre-vision may be natural, from the operation of
reason ; or it may be extraordinary, and derived from
the exercise of some occult power. We need no mes-
merising to exercise the faculty naturally. If we see
a man standing at the mouth of a cannon we can
predict death or injury to him if he remain there when
the gun is discharged; we can predict that a man
deprived of food will be starved for want of it ; that a
house on fire will be consumed unless the fire be
extinguished ; we infer the effects of certain causes by
the exercise of reason, and may easily predict them.
Physicians thus predict the termination of a disease,
and all men every variety of events from rational
inference. The other (or extraordinary) prophecy, is
when nothing is known from which a particular event
can be deduced as certain to happen, and yet the event
is foretold, and does happen as foretold. All history,
from the most ancient down to the history of the
present day, contains abundant evidence of the reality
of this faculty as occurring spontaneously. There are
few mesmerisers who have not had positive confirma-
tion that the power does really exist, as it is frequently
exercised by some few of their sleep-wakers. Some
see the future depicted as a vision or picture ; some
know by perception without any vision ; some see the
predicted event written or printed ; some say that they
are told by the spirits of deceased persons. The works
of writers on mesmerism furnish numerous striking
instances of prophecies of mesmeric sleep-wakers being
confirmed by the succeeding events. It is not my
purpose to quote from the evidence of others, but
rather to give that which I have personal knowledge
of, and can therefore vouch for. I will only subjoin
a few of the cases which have happened in my own
experience.

60 POST- VISION AND PRE- VISION.

I formerly held, for nearly ten years, an appointment
involving onerous responsibility (connected with the
care and management of insanity) ; this I eventually
determined to relinquish and accordingly sent in my
resignation. As it was tolerably well remunerated
three gentlemen, personal friends of my own, became
candidates to succeed me. At this time I frequently
mesmerised a lady for a nervous affection, who had
become one of the most beautiful subjects it was ever
my good fortune to treat. One of the candidates was
an especial friend of the lady's and is now married to
her. After the gentlemen had each made his application
and forwarded testimonials I was somewhat anxious
to know who would be chosen, and requested this lady,
when in sleep-waking, to try and ascertain. After
an interval of profound silence she said, " Your suc-
cessor now stands in the entrance hall at K House,

just beyond the arch on the left hand, his back turned
towards the fire ; I do not see his face clearly, because
I see him through a mist like a gauze curtain, which
seems drawn across under the arch between us." I

enquired, "Is it Mr. ?" (the lady's own friend).

She replied in the negative, and added "I do not think

it is either Mr. , or Mr. (the other competitors),

but I cannot be sure as I do not know them. This is
a very young man, tall and thin ; he is dressed in
black ; he is very thin." She again stated that he did
not look as if I knew him, and thought he was not
either of the parties applying to be selected as my
successor. Her description — tall, thin, and young —
did not apply to either of the gentlemen, nor did I
think it at all likely that any very young man would
be chosen, as such would not be suitable, and I there-
fore set her statement down as hallucination. I did
not question her truth as to seeing that which she
described imaginatively, but considered it a merely
imaginary and erroneous mental impression. In this
opinion I was confirmed when, a few weeks afterwards,

POST-VISION AND PRE-YISION. Gl

one of the three applicants (a stout gentleman) received
the appointment. It happened, however, that this
gentleman after accepting, was prevented by circum-
stances from entering upon it ; and about two months
afterwards a tall, very thin, and very young man, was
really installed in the office ; and thus the prophetic
vision was verified.

About the end of March, 1846, I was at Mr. Joseph
Hands's house witnessing some mesmeric phenomena,
and seated beside his clairvoyante, Ellen Dawson, who
was in her mesmeric state. Some observation about
the weather having been made, I asked Ellen if she
could tell what kind of weather we should have ? She
replied that she "liked me, and would try." After
seeming to reflect for some time, she said " it will be
very cold and rainy all through April until a day or
two before the end, when it will be fine ; it will be very
hot indeed the first week in May, very hot; then it
will be very cold with frosty nights ; and then it will
set in suddenly very hot indeed, hotter than it has
been for fifteen years I think. Oh ! it will be so hot ;
I can feel the heat now. I cannot tell to a day when
it will set in hot, but it will not be before the 19th of
May ; it will not be long afterwards either ; it will be
about that time ; it is going to be a very hot summer.
Oh ! it will be so very hot." I made a memorandum
of this, and watched the weather : April was cold and
wet all the month, excepting a few days at the end.
The first eight or nine days in May were hot, above
the average temperature of the month. On the 12th
and 13th ice was formed as thick as a penny piece in
exposed situations ; and on the 25th or 26th of May
the temperature changed suddenly from being cold to
extraordinary heat ; and we had, as will be remem-
bered, a remarkably and unusually hot summer. Thus
did Ellen's weather prophecy prove a true one.*

* I named this prediction to some twenty or thirty persons
I imagine, who are witnesses also to its verification. Amongst

62 POST-VISION AND PRE-VISION.

On another occasion I accompanied a lady, a per-
sonal friend who wished for an interview with Ellen, to
Mr. Hands's. Ellen displayed some very beautiful and
remarkable clairvoyance, and towards the conclusion
of our interview the lady enquired from Ellen if her
husband, who was an invalid, would recover. Ellen
replied that he would not. The lady asked if she
might hope that he would be spared some years to her,
or if he would be removed soon? Ellen replied, "Oh!
that is just as God pleases ; life and death are in His
hands; he may live long, or he may die soon; it is
just as God pleases." Ellen directly afterwards accom-
panied me to Mr. Hands's surgery to select some
medicine for the gentleman, and whilst going down
stairs she stated to me, " That lady's husband will die
in about six months from this time ; I cannot exactly
say the day, but it will be about six months ; he will
have some very bad fits and will never get over it ; but
you must not tell the lady, it would make her unhappy."
I named this prediction to several friends (of course
not to the lady or her family), and we watched for its
fulfilment. The gentleman had four or five successive
fits, and died in a fit, within six months and a fortnight
from the night when Ellen delivered this prediction.

These were instances of a feeling or mental percep-
tion of the future. All perceptions are mental ; there-
fore I had better express it as a perception without a
pictorial representation.

In 1846, I mesmerised a middle-aged lady for a
paralytic affection, whose mesmeric state was one of
deep sleep mixed with occasional sleep-waking. She
was, during the time of treatment, very anxious and
uncomfortable at the long silence of her husband who

them were several farmers ; some of whom on the approach of
harvest of same season, begged to know when I thought I
should see that wonderful young lady in London, as they
wished I would be so kind as to ascertain the weather for the
next month.

POST-VISION AND PRE-V1SION. G3

was in America. One evening, during sleep, she
suddenly ejaculated, " Thank God ! thank God ! poor
fellow, he is better. I quietly whispered in her ear,
" Are you quite sure that he is better ?" — supposing
it might refer to her husband, but not willing to risk
her losing her vision by any disturbing enquiry, or one
which would recall her faculties to her present state
and place. She answered, "Can't you see that he
looks better ? I am looking over his shoulder reading
a letter which he is now writing to me ; I shall get it
in six or seven weeks. He says in it that he has been
ill three months, and was not able to write to me before,
but that now he is much better." My patient, after
saying this, relapsed into deep sleep. When awakened,
I told her she had been dreaming about her husband,
and the substance of her dream. In about two months
she received the expected letter from him ; in it he
accounted for his long silence by informing her that he
had been dangerously ill, and unable to write for three
months.

This instance was a prophecy in one sense, as it
related to an event of which she could have no know-
ledge in her natural state ; but it probably was obtained
by an exercise of clairvoyance, as she said she saw her
husband writing the letter and looked over his shoulder
and read it ; her prediction of receiving it was an in-
ference which would rationally follow. It may appear
a contradiction that she should suppose herself present
with her husband in America, looking over his shoulder
and reading what he was writing, and that she should
also know she would not receive the letter until six or
seven weeks elapsed. I merely state the circumstances
and do not attempt to explain their seeming incon-
gruity. Such instances are common enough. With
many clairvoyant subjects space and time appear no
longer predicable; they still know where they will be
when restored to their natural material state ; but can
be during sleep-waking anywhere immediately as they

64 POST-VISION AND PRE-VI8ION.

wish. They seem to be in a state of spiritual percep-
tion where the laws of gross material existence cease
to restrain them ; in that state which we can suppose
possible to an immortal spirit when its association with
a material body is dissevered ; when — but stop — I am
approaching a subject of overwhelming sublimity — a
subject compelling an admission of the truths of Divine
revelation — a subject which can explain the immediate
and ultimate action of mesmeric influence — a subject
which can continue us in the light where physiology
and material philosophy has left us in darkness ; but
a subject also which would necessarily lead me into
matters of religious controversy, and therefore tabooed
in a work designed to instruct only in mesmeric facts.
That which has just fallen from my pen I will not
draw that pen through ; but I may not here pursue the
subject any further.

I have had in my own experience many cases where
sleep-wakers indicated a medicine or remedy for them-
selves, and stated that they saw the article in the air
before them ; as, for instance, a visionary bottle with
£i label on it naming the contents. A little patient I
had (who once possessed beautiful pre-vision for her
own case) saw what was to be done, and what the
result would be, in a great book. She declared that
she might not tell me, or any person, where that book
was. The case is detailed in No. 27 of the Zoist, for
October 1, 1849.

I have also had experience of sleep-wakers declaring
that what they tell and predict is told to them by the
spirit of a deceased person with whom they hold com-
munication. I lately had residing in my family, as a
servant, a little girl, a clairvoyante, who declares that
a deceased clairvoyante named Anne (who, before her
death was a servant to my little girl's former mistress),
is always standing beside her, and tells her and shows
her the things she desires to know. When she could
not make out the information I desired, I would enquire

POST-VISION AND PRE-VISION. 05

" Why don't you see, Eliza?" " Where is your friend
Anne ?" " She is standing just there, near to you,
sir." " Is she? ask her to be so kind as to show you
or to tell you about this" (as the case may be), " if it
is not wrong for me to know it." She then became
silent for a few minutes ; said she had consulted Anne,
and gave the desired information ; or declared that
Anne refused to tell her; or that Anne was vexed with
her for doing something wrong and would not speak.

Dr. Elliotson had a somewhat similar experience
with one of the Okeys ; her predictions, I believe,
were always verified with the event. Other mesmer-
isers have similar experience. I know, and have seen,
and can at any time see analogous instances in the
subjects of others. The doctor considered these de-
clarations as the product of mental hallucination or
imagination. His patient eventually predicted without
the spirit and considered that her former impression as
to the spirit was merely a delusion — probably it was
so. I am only stating as a fact that some sleep-wakers
believe they see and converse with spirits : I do not
state it as a fact that they really do so. When I see
the spirits with my material eyes, and can at pleasure
show them to the material eyes of others, I shall be
fairly entitled to assert their appearance as a natural
fact ; until then the declarations made of their presence
by sleep-wakers can only be received as their declara-
tions. Our belief respecting it is a matter of faith,
which a man has an undoubted right to entertain for
himself, but no right to thrust as a fact upon any
other man.

The possession of a power by some sleep-wakers of
foreseeing and predicting the future, may be accepted
as a well-ascertained and established truth. We can
receive the truth without being able to account for it,
just as we are in the habit of receiving the truth of
various natural phenomena without being enabled to
explain them.

F

( 6G )

ECSTASY.

Some few sleep-wakers pass into a variety of the
state of a very remarkable character. It has been
known for centuries to occur as it were spontaneously
in isolated instances ; and at times and in certain com-
munities large numbers of persons — especially children
and females — have been subject to the phenomena
and conditions of this state, which has been called
ecstasy. Mesmerisers occasionally have cases of
ecstasy presented amongst their patients, but it is not
in general of frequent occurrence,^ although it appears
that some operators produce it more frequently than
others. It is a sleep-waking state of a highly- exalted
character, in which the faculties of clairvoyance, know-
ledge of the past, and prophecy are sometimes especially
well developed — sometimes totally absent ; but the
subjects of this state believe that they are not any
longer in the body, or are not seeing as persons but as
spirits. Many declare that they see and hold converse
with spirits; and in this state the subjects are generally
quite indifferent as to their bodily health or circum-
stances -T they have or fancy they have a foretaste of
the happiness which they may enjoy in a spiritual life 'T
they declare they see most lovely visions of beautiful
spirits, of gardens, flowers, places and scenery, which
fill them with indescribable delight, and only regret
that they cannot remain ever amongst them ; for though
they describe them as visions, they steadily insist upon
their reality and that they are walking amidst these
scenes. The usual feature of ecstasy is abstraction
from all external or worldly matters ; there is perfect
unconsciousness to feeling and other sensational im-

ECSTASY. 67

pressions, excepting the voice of the mesmeriser ; the
subject is wholly absorbed in religious contemplation,
and the only matters which he willingly discourses
about relate to the life after death and the happiness
which awaits those who have lived a good life. The
countenance of the ecstatic also sometimes undergoes
a remarkable change — a change so extraordinary that
no mere description would convey an adequate idea
of it. I had formerly two patients in whom this
peculiarity was especially prominent. I knew that
they were the same parties whom I had mesmerised,
and they had the same hair and clothes on ; but I cannot
say that they had the same faces apparently. I was
aware of course that they had not changed faces with
any body or spirit either, but they had assumed a new
character and expression of face which gave it the
appearance of a new face. One patient was a highly-
educated, accomplished, and seriously- disposed lady;
tall, well formed, and handsome. The other was a
respectably-connected, innocent, simple-minded little
girl, of some eighteen or nineteen years, with good
features, but pale and sickly looking. The one, when
the ecstasy invaded, rose from her recumbent position
on the sofa in the most graceful and elegant manlier
imaginable, and assumed a kneeling attitude on the
sofa, the hands placed with the palms together, as if in
prayer, and face turned upwards. Unconnected sen-
tences and ejaculations in a whisper occasionally escaped
her ; such as, " Oh ! beautiful place ! Oh ! beautiful
angels ! How I long to be there with you ! Oh ! if I
could but get there, what delight !" If I separated her
hands and put them down she gently and quietly placed
them together in their previous position, but her body
remained rigid. I could not easily, or by any force I
used, bend it out of the kneeling position. When
awake or in common sleep-waking, she had no memory
whatsoever of this portion of her state.

The little girl always remained in the recumbent

f 2

68 ECSTASY.

position, but placed her palms together and elevated
the hands. Her countenance was more beautiful in
this state than the lady's, and being naturally less
handsome, the change was more astounding. I may
seem to be writing in an extravagant strain, — it is not
so ; for the change of countenance was so extraordinary
that I could hardly — matter-of-fact man as I am — look
on without feeling a sensation of awe. She never spoke
or moved when in this condition, but complained of
being recalled from it when demesmerised. She had
some memory when awake of having been in a most
beautiful place, so beautiful she could not describe it,
and that she greatly regretted having to leave it as
she was so happy there.

I have had cases when the patient has retained a
distinct remembrance of this ecstatic dream when per-
fectly restored to the normal waking state, although
the patient would not allow that it was a dream, but
would insist that it was a reality ; nor am I, indi-
vidually, disposed to treat it as a mere hallucination ;
others have an undoubted right to consider it such if
they please.

Some amount of care on the part of the mesmeriser
is necessary in managing ecstatics ; if allowed to
remain too long in the state, they may get so deep as
to be no longer subject to his control ; he may then
be not able to awaken them, and although the patient
will eventually awaken spontaneously, it is a circum-
stance which causes much anxiety and inconvenience.
I think, as a general rule, that a duration of twenty
or thirty minutes is long enough for patients to be in
this state at one time.

( 69 )

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

The other phenomena which are presented by per-
sons under mesmeric influence are Traction, Catalepsy,
Rigidity, Apparent Adhesion, Transposition of the
Senses, Phreno-mesmerism, Nervous and Cerebral
Sympathy or Transfer of Sensation and Thought,
and Dominance of the Volition of the operator over
the will of the subject. Some one or other of these
phenomena may be produced upon subjects in either
mesmeric state. In the deep sleep patients are often
so wholly unconscious that they can neither feel nor
respond to the mesmeriser's action ; but traction may
be sometimes educed, and rigidity and catalepsy are
common in the deep sleep. Many persons are or may
be made so sensible of mesmeric impressions that they
become most beautiful expositors of these phenomena
whilst in the natural waking state. The sleep-waking
state is that in which they are most frequently pre-
sented and easily brought out, especially that degree
of it when the subject has rather a tendency to sleep
than to waking ; when he is sleeping and passive until
he feels the influence, and merely arouses into sleep-
waking to give expression to the influence communi-
cated by the mesmeriser.

TRACTION

Is when a part or the whole person of the subject may
be drawn towards the operator by tractive motions, —
just as a needle is drawn by and to a magnet. It

70 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

succeeds with very sensitive patients when the operator
is at a distance, — and sometimes at a considerable
distance, as several miles ; and this when the subject
has not any present consciousness that the operator is
about to act upon him. By making repulsive motions
the subject may be repelled instead of attracted.

CATALEPSY

Is when a part or the whole of the subject is in that
pliant and plastic state that it can be easily flexed and
placed into any position not anatomically impossible ;
and retains that state until the mesmeriser or some
other person changes it.

RIGIDITY

Is when a part of the body or the whole becomes stiff
and unyielding, as if the individual was carved from
wood or had been frozen hard ; when it cannot by any
ordinary amount of force be flexed or changed from the
position placed in unless it be demesmerised.

APPARENT ADHESION

Is when the hands or feet appear to adhere to some
object, or the person seems as if stuck to the chair.
It certainly is not an actual adhesion; because, although
the hand seems to adhere to the object, the object does
not adhere to the hand. Neither is it a pressure of
the hand of the subject upon or against the object by
an unconscious mental effort, because in such case
certain muscles of the arm must minister to the mental

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 71

effort. Now although the hand seems pressed down
with great force, the muscles of the arm will be found
on examination, soft and inactive. I have performed
this class of experiments hundreds of times ; sometimes
sticking a hand or foot, sometimes the whole body,
head, trunk, arms, and legs to an appropriate surface ;
and the effect is as if an invisible weight was placed
upon the subject, and pressed the part or the whole of
him down ; or as if the force of gravity was increased
on his person. I have examined these particular phe-
nomena in a quiet enquiring spirit — no person present
but the patient and myself — and I am as ignorant now
of the cause as I was before I had seen the effect.
We must observe not to mistake a temporary paralysis
of an organ for apparent adhesion (a mistake a young
mesmeriser might make), as the phenomena are dif-
ferent in the effects ; though in either case the subject
is unable to remove the hand. For instance, in simple
paralysis the bystander can raise the limb ; in apparent
adhesion he cannot by ordinary force. If the mes-
meriser has affixed it with a force as of fifty pounds,
some similar amount of force must be used to lift it.
I can best describe the effect by stating it to be appa-
rently as if an invisible weight had been placed upon
the limb.

TRANSPOSITION OF THE SENSES.

I have seen but little of this ; but know what it is
from the experience of others. It is when the subject
no longer hears, sees, tastes, or smells through the
media of the ordinary organs, but has sensational
perception through some other part of his person.
Subjects usually have this perception confined to a
part of the person — as the epigastric region ; they hear
when addressed there ; taste food placed there ; see
pictures placed there. Others see and taste with their

72 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

elbows or fingers, or the whole surface. It has occurred
both in spontaneous and mesmeric sleep-waking or
analogous states. It cannot be ridiculous, because it
is a wonderful fact. It is my duty to my readers to
name its occurrence, but I am not in a condition to
give any particular information respecting it from my
personal experience.

PHEENO-MESMERISM

Presents a truly beautiful, physiological, and useful
class of phenomena. The great and grand discovery
of the illustrious Gall — -a discovery which must im-
mortalise his name to posterity, when the names of the
greatest who have ventured to sneer at his discovery
shall have passed into oblivion — the discovery that the
functions of mind are separately located in certain con-
volutions or portions of the whole mass of brain, is
experimentally proved to be true by phreno-mesmerism.
That which Gall ascertained by observation, comparison,
and deduction, the mesmerist easily proves by experi-
ment. When a subject is brought into the properly
susceptible state, on pointing or touching over any or
some particular portion of the skull, the portion of brain
underneath is aroused into action, and the subject gives
forth a manifestation of its proper mental character or
cerebral function. To be brief: suppose we thus excite
Philo-progenitiveness — the love of children ; the sub-
ject immediately thinks, speaks, or dreams of children;
and under the excitement may nurse and fondle a sofa
pillow, supposing it a child. Excite Veneration, he
prays; Covetousness, he steals; Benevolence, he gives
away ; Tune, he sings ; Combativeness, he quarrels ;
Self-esteem, he is proud and haughty ; and so on
through the whole range of mental faculties. With
some patients we may excite the larger portion of the
mental faculties ; with others only a few will respond

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 73

to the artificial excitement. This depends upon the
cerebral organisation of the subject, — upon his sus-
ceptibility, and upon the state previously induced.
The organs of some persons are naturally so sensitive
from disease or nervous temperament, that they may
be phreno-mesmerically excited without subjecting them
(the persons) to the customary preliminary mesmerisa-
tion ; we need not put them into sleep or sleep-waking.
The cerebral organs of such persons can be and often
are abnormally excited or depressed, from various
causes, independently of mesmerism, — and then we
have melancholy men, and restless men, and eccentric
men, even to monomaniacs. From the character of
the mental tendency we can ascertain the portion of
brain excited, and thus learn, when we know a remedy,
where to apply it with a chance of success. The phy-
sician who understands phrenology knows that the
healthy and well-regulated mind is only to be found in
the well-balanced head, or that the action of the large
and energetic organ is counterpoised or counteracted
by the activity of the mentally opposite or opposed
organ, — as large Covetousness restrained by active
Conscientiousness ; Combativeness or Destructiveness
by Benevolence ; too active a Benevolence by Caution,
and so on. The physician who does not believe phren-
ology, when called to a case of mental disease, may
rightly consider it a case in which cerebral excitement
is indicated, and proceed by head-shaving, and ice,
and lotions, and depletion, and blistering, or cathartics
and antimonials, to reduce the excitement. If he
succeeds in reducing the energy of nervous or cerebral
power, he has done so generally. He has weakened
not only the organs unduly irritated but the antagonist
organs, which should control the disordered ones, and
the head remains still out of balance. If his remedies
be good at all in the case he should learn to apply
them locally ; to reduce the activity of one part of the
brain, and stimulate the action of another. Say the

74 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

phrenologist-physician has not learned how to effect
this, — what then? He is approaching it — he has made
the beginning. If a man would tread every stone in
a street, he must walk into the street ; the man who
refuses to perambulate the street will never tread on
its stones. The phreno-mesmerist may not always
succeed, but he is in the path to success.

Let those who are related to or interested in the
insane only witness a judicious course of phreno-mes-
meric experiments, then judge of the application for a
useful purpose by their common sense, without regard
to the dicta of doctors who are ignorant of phrenology ;
and that simple instinctive common sense will lead
them to imagine a much more scientific and rational
treatment than has hitherto been taught by the
"preachments" of a large portion of the doctors
charged with the cure of insanity.

OF SENSE AND THOUGHT,

Is when the mesmerised subject may have lost all
sensational consciousness in his own person, but be
perfectly conscious of that which appeals to the sen-
sational consciousness of his mesmeriser ; or he may
remain awake and this community of perception exist.
The subject appears deeply asleep ; you may pinch
him or tickle him, he feels it not; you may address
him, he hears it not ; he tastes not ; he has lost the
sense of smelling ; he has no sensational existence,
unless it exists in the senses of his mesmeriser. It
seems as if the individuality of the subject had merged
into that of the operator ; or as if the influence of the
operator had paralysed the sensory system of the
subject, and brought his brain into such close sympathy
or association with his own, that there are two indi-
viduals with one brain — the operator's brain, being

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 75

the waking and dominant organ, acts for both. Pinch
the subject, he does not feel it ; pinch the operator
the subject feels as if he were pinched, and complains
of being hurt in that part of his person which cor-
responds with the part of the operator hurt. Tickle
the nostrils or ears of the subject, he feels it not ; but
tickle the nose or ear of the operator, and the subject
rubs his own nose or ear and complains of being
tickled there. Put rhubarb into the mouth of the
subject, he does not taste it ; put rhubarb into the
mesmeriser's mouth, and the subject tastes and names
it, imagining that he has it in his own mouth. When
the operator drinks, the subject swallows and fancies
he is drinking. I have never tried the experiment for
obvious reasons, but have no doubt that if I drank
enough ardent spirits to intoxicate me whilst in this
peculiar relation with a patient, that my patient would
be also intoxicated. I cannot say, not having tried, if
the effect would remain when the subject was awakened ;
but I think, from circumstances stated by other mes-
merisers, that it probably would. Experiments made
to show this kind of phenomena will sometimes succeed
through the whole class of sensations, — as tasting,
feeling, smelling, hearing, and seeing ; but are more
often confined to the three first enumerated senses.

With subjects in this state of association with the
mesmeriser it occasionally happens that there is even
a community of thought ; thus the subject perceives
the thoughts of the operator, and may respond to them
vocally. I have maintained a regularly-connected
conversation with a patient without opening my lips.
I formed my ideas into sentences as distinctly, though
mentally, as if I had given them vocal utterance, or
written them down, and my patient replied vocally
and as correctly as if I had spoken them and been
heard. Sometimes the subject thinks with the operator
but does not respond, having lost his sense of individu-
ality. In other cases he retains a knowledge of his

76 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

personal identity, perceives the operator's thoughts,
and responds vocally to them, or obeys them, if the
ideas have received the form of wishes or commands,
or refuses to comply.

This singular sympathy between operator and sub-
ject may be confined to their brains respectively, and
not extend to the system of nerves; it may be
•established between their respective nervous systems
and not affect the subject's sensorium, excepting
through the medium of the nerves ; or it may be
general and universal, implicating the whole cerebral
and nervous system. It would be, perhaps, more
correct were I to express myself thus : that the
sympathy may affect the thinking part of the brain
and not the sensory; or the sensory and not the
thinking ; or it may affect both thinking and sensory
brain.

This class of phenomena may he educed from sub-
jects either in mesmeric sleep, in sleep- waking, or
(though rarely) from subjects in the waking state, who
are then in a mesmeric waking state. The sympathy
of nervous state is usually observed when the subject's
state is that of mesmeric sleep ; the community of
thought when he is in or approaching to sleep-waking.

Although the phenomena treated of in tins chapter
are generally developed between mesmeriser and
patient, they may be presented when others are put
into communication with the patient. A bystander
^akes the hand of the patient, or looks earnestly at
and fixes his attention upon him ; the sympathy may
then be established, and the phenomena occur as if
this new person was the original mesmeriser ; or the
patient may be in nervous community with several
persons at the same time.

When some few patients are in sleep-waking, and
have this thought-feeling faculty well developed, they
can put themselves into communication with whom-
soever they wish, and thus perceive the thoughts

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. il

of all in the room, — aye ! even of persons at any
distance, if they direct their attention to them. This
power is not of common occurrence, but I am perfectly
certain that it does exist, and know many mes-
merisers of unimpeachable veracity who can confirm
my statement.

Be it also remembered, that there are many beings
sufficiently susceptible of our influence to be impressed
by it, when we are not consciously and designedly
seeking to exercise a special influence upon them.

Without any purposed mesmerisation, certain organi-
sations may naturally be in such relation or sympathy
with others, that the earnest desire of one can over-
power another ; the thoughts and feelings of one may
unconsciously be made the thoughts and feelings of
the other, and if these thoughts be evil may mislead
to the commission of evil. Furthermore, as this
sympathy has its physical as well as mental influence,
a diseased person may, when in the sympathetic
relation, exercise a detrimental influence upon those
in association with him, and thus bring them into a
like diseased state*

The circumstances tending to establish this com-
munion seems to be a peculiar sympathy betwixt the
parties, and the mental and physical activity of one
and a passive inactive state of the other. If we would
escape unworthy moral influence we must be active,
keep our mental powers awake and in exercise. If we
would escape physical influence of a detrimental kind,
we must be active and keep our nervous system in
energetic occupation. This is why the medical attend-
ants, nurses, and friends actively engaged in ministering
to the sick do escape from disease, whilst patients and
passive friends associated with them are frequently
recipients of the diseased influence. The fact that the
active associates escape diseases considered contagious
far more frequently than those who are in passive
association with the diseased is well known to all

78 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

medical men. When we examine cases of sympathy
established artificially, or rather designedly, by mes-
meric process, some light is evolved which confirms
the view I have taken of this subject, and which
should deeply interest the physiologist and pathologist.
Instances, undoubtedly true, have been given when
patients not only exhibited the thought-feeling power,
but replied to questions addressed to them in languages
which they did not understand when awake, and never
had understood ; — that is, the patients not only under-
stood the language in which they were addressed, but
spoke that language when replying. " Strange, if
true !" the reader may exclaim. True it certainly is,
and unquestionably strange. I have never seen this
fact, and am therefore unable to vouch personally for
it. It was observed two centuries ago amongst
ecstatics, and cases have occurred within the last few
years amongst mesmerised subjects. The evidence of
its truth is too conclusive to allow an impartial and
unprejudiced examiner to deny it. I must content
myself with briefly stating this circumstance, — I should
be sorry to attempt any explanation.

DOMINANCE OF WILL

Is when a person by the unspoken or silent force of a
powerful volition compels another to obey him. A
person may be mesmerised by the silent will alone
without any manipulation,. and put into sleep or sleep-
waking, or have mesmeric phenomena induced on him
in the waking state. Some mesmerisers make frequent
use of the will power ; they will that their patients
shall do certain actions, — as that they sleep naturally
in bed so many hours, and awake at a specified hour ;
that they avoid certain habits ; they wish, or will away
pains ; they paralyse limbs by will alone ; paralyse
the senses; excite the cerebral organs by will; and

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 79

exercise the power over various matters which may be
inferred without further special details. Some persons
can exercise an extraordinary influence by will alone ;
others may be good mesmerisers by manipulating, but
have very little will power. The mesmeric influence
may be by will alone, or by will and manipulating
communicated to inert matter, and invest it with
imaginary properties ; or it can be made to exercise a
motive power upon inert matter.

When imaginary properties are communicated to
inert matter we cause a kind of phantasy in the subject
of the experiment. With some sleeprwakers we may
cause water to taste as if it were malt liquor, or wine,
or tea, milk, coffee, physic, or give it the taste and
seeming properties of any liquid which we will it to
resemble. We may place an imaginary barrier across
the doorway, or across a room or passage, and prevent
the subject passing, he knowing no other than that our
imaginary barrier is a real one. We may put an
imaginary stool under his foot, which he will keep
elevated, insisting that he has placed it upon a stool.
We may desire him to bring us a chair ; he obeys ;
we then load it with an imaginary weight, and desire
him to put it back again. He tries, and fails to move
it, declaring that it is too heavy for him to lift. We
may place an imaginary animal on his knees, and vary
the experiments in many ways which it is unnecessary
to explain. They are merely instances of the power
which the will of one person may exert over the
imagination of another, and that this power can be
eommunicated to inanimate matter, which is therefore
devoid of imagination, and yet capable of receiving a
special influence from a special will and impressing
this influence upon the imagination of another. These
experiments may be successfully tried in such manner
as to avoid the probability that the effect is brought
about by the direct action of will upon imagination.
The subject may be awake, and at a distance from the

80 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

mesmeriser, when the object which it is designed shall
produce the phantasy is mesmerised, or acted upon by
the will influence ; and yet on the subject coming in
and taking his part in the experiment it is found to
succeed, although the subject is quite unconscious that
any such experiment is attempted or intended. With
some subjects it is not necessary to put them into
sleep-waking, the experiment succeeds whilst they are
in their normal state of vigilance.*

THE MESMERIC PROMISE

Is related to this class of phenomena. This is when
we obtain a promise from the sleep-waker that he will
abstain from a certain act, or do a certain act at a
certain time after he is awakened. When awakened
he has no memory of his promise, and yet is impelled
by a desire he cannot understand the reason for to do
the promised act at the promised time, or to abstain
from that which he otherwise desires. In this case the
subject's own will, though he is unconscious of its
active agency, seems to be the active agent. I know
a young lady who used to suffer greatly from tooth-
ache, and made a mesmeric promise that she would
never again have the tooth-ache. Though she still
retains the carious teeth she has never broken her
promise, but if exposed to circumstances which would
otherwise have caused a tooth-ache she has ear-ache
instead.

I could say much more that is curious on these very
curious subjects ; subjects which are probably on the
whole more curious than useful. The physician and

* These experiments are often shown as examples of mes
merism under a new name, viz., electro-biology.

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. <S1

physiologist cannot investigate them too carefully; but
the young mesmeriser, who merely wishes to relieve
disease and suffering, had better leave them alone.
They are not devoid of useful application, but have a
tendency to foster the wonder-working spirit and lead
the enthusiasm of beginners to misapply or abuse that
power which they had far better use for the benefit of
their fellow-beings. These phenomena cannot be
safely applied but by the experienced mesmeriser,
who, actuated by conscientiousness and benevolence,
will never seek to exercise his power excepting for
the good of others.

MESMERIC ATTRACTION

Is simply a strong attraction existing in the mesmerised
subject towards his mesmeriser. When it does occur
it is usually observed in the sleep-waking state; but
occasionally may be developed in persons who pass into
sleep, and even in waking persons who are influenced
by mesmerism or in the state I have called the mes-
meric waking state.

This attraction may be entirely physical or entirely
mental — or, as is more common, both mental and
physical.

When entirely physical, the subject seems irre-
sistibly drawn or impelled towards the operator, and
cannot rest unless they (the subject and operator) are in
contact or very nearly approximated. The mesmeriser
may converse with or give his attention to others with-
out distressing his subject, who is satisfied whilst he
remains in physical contiguity with the mesmeriser.

When entirely mental, the subject does not feel
attracted bodily to the mesmeriser, but seems desirous
of close mental association. If the mesmeriser only
talks to another, — or reads a book, — or even allows
his thoughts or attention to stray from the subject, the

G

82 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

latter immediately feels it, becomes cold and shivers,
and complains of the absence of the mesmeriser. I
have had patients in sleep-waking, who knew not
otherwise than that I had gone away and left them if
my thoughts strayed ; they either had no longer any
perception of place and person or were indifferent
respecting them; they were united to me by a mental
sympathy or chain which they could not endure to be
broken, and which was broken if I thought of any
other or withdrew my attention from them.

When the attraction is mixed we see both develop-
ments of it exhibited ; the subject likes to be near the
mesmeriser, and that the mesmeriser should talk to or
think of him, and not of any other. We see a merely
strong and natural manifestation of love ; and often ex-
hibited much in the same way as by a person in the
normal state who is under the influence of the passion.

It has been said that this mesmeric attachment is
entirely different from common love ; that there is none
of that peculiar feeling which frequently characterises
the love of persons of different sexes existing in it ;
that it is a far higher— a pure and holy love — or re-
sembling the love of an infant for its parent. To this
I venture to observe that it may be frequently thus
described ; that it may be always thus with some sub-
jects ; but that we must not believe this description to
be invariably applicable. All must depend, and does
depend, upon the mesmeric state in which the subject
has been placed ; and also upon the cerebral develop-
ment of the subject. Patients who pass into perfectly
lucid sleep-waking have as clear or more clear percep-
tion of propriety than when awake, and frequently also
preserve their full measure of self-control. But there
are sleep-waking states or degrees of the state, when
the patients are in a sort of semi-delirium, and I know
very well that if the patient be naturally possessed by
certain erotic tendencies, the tendencies will manifest
themselves when this state is induced.

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 83

When mesmeric attraction or attachment is pre-
sented by a patient in mesmeric sleep we may become
aware of it by the patient awaking, or feeling very
cold, or being distressed if the mesmeriser leaves him
or withdraws attention from him.

If developed in any degree of the sleep-waking, the
patient will make ns aware of it (unless exercising
strong self-control) by words or actions, or both.

When shown in the "mesmeric waking state" (which
very seldom happens), we perceive it by the unusual
display of friendship or affection which the subject
manifests towards the mesmeriser whilst being mes-
merised or whilst under the influence.

This mesmeric attachment is not generally a desir-
able mesmeric manifestation; I do not believe that
subjects who exhibit it are any more likely to be cured
in consequence ; and I do know that it renders the
treatment a matter not only very delicate and trouble-
some to the operator, but often very distressing to the
patient. The patient cannot bear the mesmeriser' s
absence either personally or mentally ; and if he does
leave or withdraw his attention, the patient is rather
injured than benefited by the operation. The patient
may be conscious of a desire to approach the mes-
meriser and evince attachment to him, and may know
that it would be imprudent, or a breach of conventional
propriety, to indulge in the desire. The patient may
refrain from exhibiting or acting on his inclination, and
yet be injured by this exercise of self-control.
• In long mesmeric treatments the frequent and con-
fidential intercourse, which necessarily exists between
the operator and subject, naturally induces a certain
degree of mutual regard. The mesmeriser feels an
interest in the well-being of the patient ; if the latter
is benefited, he also feels a dependance on the mes-
meriser, and is grateful for the exertions which the
other makes for his comfort. A warm feeling of
friendly regard may thus exist ; but this is a very

g2

84 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.

different feeling to that of true mesmeric attraction or
attachment. The natural friendship may exist and
remain when the mesmerism is discontinued. The
mesmeric feeling is dependent on the mesmeric influ-
ence and ceases with the influence. Generally it is
ended as soon as the patient is fully awakened. Should
the patient evince the mesmeric attachment in the
mesmeric waking state we may have an exception to
this rule, because the patient then has a memory left
him of his feeling which is not dissipated although the
influence may be dissipated.

When the operator and patient are both persons of
the same sex, or their relative situations are such that
there is nothing undesirable in mutual esteem, no other
disagreeable consequences need result from the occur-
rence of this mesmeric tendency than the additional
care and trouble imposed on the mesmeriser ; but if
the circumstances are otherwise the mesmeriser should
try to dispel this effect of the influence, and even in
some cases discontinue the treatment if he does not
succeed. The effect may often be removed by breathing
over the organs of Adhesiveness for ten minutes at a
time, and then blowing over the part; or by exercising
the will strongly to prevent; or, when we can, by
making the patient promise not to feel attracted or
attached, that is, by extracting from him a mesmeric
promise, which is very seldom known to be broken.

Mesmeric attraction is I think usually caused by the
operator becoming too deeply absorbed or interested in
his patient; although the feeling may be purely friend-
ship it is of a different kind to that of the physician,
whose principal concern for his patient is the desire to
cure him. Young operators who have only one or two
patients often excite it ; old operators who have many
subjects, and have mesmerised hundreds, very rarely
see this attachment evinced by their patients.

( 85 )

OF MESMERIC PROCESSES.

Having given a brief account of Mesmeric States
and Phenomena, I will now proceed to explain the
methods by which these states are produced, that is,
how patients may be placed under the mesmeric influ-
ence. I have chosen this arrangement because it is
proper that persons should understand the character of
the states produced before they attempt to produce
them. I shall not offer any hypothesis as to the nature
of the mesmeric influence, I am stating facts and must
avoid mixing speculations with them. The reader may
safely assume that there is a particular influence of
some kind exercised by the mesmeriser which is the
efficient agent in mesmeric operations. It is quite
possible for him to believe in the existence of such
agent without understanding its specific nature, its
original source, or its relations to other imponderable
agents or forces. Philosophers readily believe in the
existence of electrical and magnetic forces without
understanding their origin and true relation to matter
any better than mesmerisers do of the mesmeric
influence or force to matter or mind.

The first question which generally suggests itself to
a person unacquainted with mesmerism but believing
in the reality of its influence is, "Could I mesmerise?"
" Do all persons possess the power ?" To this I reply
that probably all human beings are capable of mes-
merising, but the power varies in degree, and differs
in character in different individuals ; and also differs
at different periods in the same individual; the mos.t

8G MESMERIC PROCESSES.

accustomed mesmeric practitioners may not mesmerise
at all times equally well. The power of mesmerising
is to be considered as a natural faculty — -just as the
power of singing is ; but all men do not sing equally
well, neither is the same singer at all times equally
capable of singing. The essential requisites to con-
stitute a good mesmeriser are sound physical health
and a peculiar cerebral organisation. Unless the
operator possesses good health he cannot communicate
it to others. He should also have so much strength as
will enable him to mesmerise without impairing his
own health by his endeavours to benefit others.

The power exercised in the act of mesmerising is
generally of a mixed character — mental and physical.
The mesmeriser who would excel as an operator should
have large Firmness and Combativeness ; these give
him energy and determination to accomplish his purpose
— without them he could not persevere in his efforts ;
full Concentrativeness, — this enables him to keep his
efforts directed to the object desired; Self-esteem gives
him confidence in his own power ; and active Benevo-
lence determines him to exercise his power for its
legitimate use — the good of others. This last faculty
is all essential to form a good mesmeriser. In order to
comfort and cure those who are sick and suffering it
is needful to have good health, patience, and perse-
verance, and an earnest desire to do them good, with a
belief in the power or ability to serve them. As far as
my own experience goes — which is confirmed by the
experience of others — it is by no means a matter of
indifference who operates. Some mesmerisers are very
successful in bringing out marvellous physical and
psychical phenomena and yet are no more fortunate in
curing diseases than others who possess not, or never
attempt to exercise, the wonder-working faculty. It
is also believed by many mesmerisers of great expe-
rience, that a certain physical and mental organisation
of the mesmeriser is necessary to cure certain diseases.

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 87

Some mesmcriscrs readily and generally induce deep
sleep on their patients ; others never induce the deep
sleep, but make all who do sleep sleep-wakers and
clairvoyants. I am perfectly convinced that instead of
it being a matter of indifference who is selected as a
mesmeriser, that it is a matter of PRIMARY and
ESSENTIAL IMPORTANCE. The treatment of
many cases, especially those of a nervous character,
often perplexes old experienced operators ; they some-
times, with all possible care and precaution, fail in
inducing comforting and advantageous states in their
patients; sometimes matters appearing to be indifferent
or of no consequence do produce very serious and
distressing effects. In such cases it is absurd to
.suppose that an ignorant operator — as a servant — who
has been merely shown how to make mesmeric passes
can be a proper mesmeriser, however healthy and
well-intentioned he may be. It may be well that
suffering persons try mesmerism from an inexperienced
operator, rather than abandon their cases as hopeless,
after trying every other means of cure ; the treatment
may succeed and if it fail may be nothing worse than
an unsuccessful experiment. As far as the individual
patient is concerned this may be the end of the trial —
no harm has been done — no good has been done. As
far as mesmerism generally is concerned, this is not the
end : these patients afterwards say they tried mesmerism
and it proved a total failure. Thus both friends and
patients receive an erroneous impression, and other
sufferers are prevented from giving it a trial ; the true
statement being that an inexperienced and inefficient
mesmeric operator has failed, where a suitable and
well-chosen one might have succeeded.

The reader, who after having perused and understood
my description of mesmeric states, feels desirous of
operating himself, should make his first essay on a
subject who has been already mesmerised, as he will
be encouraged by beginning on a person who is known

88 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

to be susceptible to the influence. If he has not the
opportunity of doing so he must try upon persons
willing to submit to his experiment, always avoiding
such as may be subject to epilepsy or other fits, or
convulsive diseases, or frequent and severe pains in
the head. It is better to begin upon persons free from
nervous diseases of any kind, as the first effect of mes-
merism in such cases often brings on an attack of the
particular disease, which alarms the patient; and if the
mesmeric learner be not a medical practitioner, or
accustomed to the symptoms of nervous disease, he
may also become frightened at his own work, lose the
presence of mind and calm deportment and feeling
necessary to treat the case properly, and impressing
the patient by his own mental state increase the dis-
turbance and do him at least a present injury. These
nervous subjects are generally highly susceptible of
mesmeric influence, and therefore favourable patients
as to presenting evidence of effects ; but unfavourable
for a learner to practise on, as presenting effects which
he may not anticipate, nor be capable of managing
when he has got them produced. Supposing this
caution observed, and a proper subject selected, the
learner may now try his influence upon him. Let him
not forget that the power he is about to exercise is not
a fit matter for child's-play experiment, or for fun and
harmless mirth ; it is really a very serious matter, and
should be only used, even as an experiment, in a
serious cautious spirit.

Exclude from the room all unnecessary witnesses, —
all who would be likely, by merriment or misplaced
remarks, to disturb your calm exercise of the influence.
The room should have any strong light excluded, and
be kept quiet and free from all intrusion.

Gain the confidence of your subject by assuring him
he has nothing to fear ; that you are only going to put
him into a very quiet comfortable sleep ; and talk to
him pleasantly and cheerful]}-. By exerting a judicious

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 89

moral influence, you will very much favour the natural
tendency he may have to succumb to your power.
Place him in an easy chair, his head supported by a
pillow if necessary, and seat yourself easily and com-
fortably in a chair opposite to him and as near as you
conveniently can ; his knees may be opposite or
between your knees ; or, if the patient be a female,
just on the right side of your knees. Now take the
patient's right hand in your left — the palm open and
presented — and make a few strong passes, without
contact and very slowly, from his wrist to his finger-
ends. The patient will probably feel a little tiny cool
or warm sensation like a wind blowing, or a creeping
on his hand. Next try a few similar passes over his
head, from the organ of Firmness downwards, over the
face, and to the neck or chest.* Then take his right
hand in your left and his left in your right, in such
manner that the fleshy cushion of your thumbs and his
are in contact, and the inside of your finger-tips in the
palms of his hands. Grasp his hands in this position
firmly and look at his face earnestly and intently,
smiling, and feeling happy and good-humoured, and
quite calm and comfortable. If your patient smiles
and seems comfortable and quite at ease, tell him to
look intently with both his eyes at one of yours — say
the right eye — and you look fixedly and intently at
his right eye with both of your eyes. You sit as
directed, eyes intent upon eyes, and hands locked in
hands ; now commence mesmerising him in earnest.
Throw, by volition, your nervous energy — or the power

* These passes are mere experiments ; if the patient does
not feel them it is of no consequence ; if the patient does feel
the cool or warm sensation it shows that there is some amount
of susceptibility, and you can then direct him to attend to his
sensations when you make passes. This is useful as an aid
to the induction of sleep ; you fix his attention to a monotonous
process which fatigues rather than interests the mind, and thus
diverts the disposition to mental activity and vigilance, which
is a powerfully-counteracting agent to the induction of sleep.

90 MESMEKIC PROCESSES.

which actuates your muscles when exercised — into your
arms and hands, and respire strongly and firmly, and
try to feel as if you can also throw this nervous energy
into the patient's hands and arms ; at the same time
you sit motionless ; eyes still fixed upon each other's ;
all your attention and thoughts concentrated upon your
subject, and directed as it were through your eyes
into his. Look straight into the pupil of his eye, as if
your vision could penetrate to his brain ; wink not ; be
firm and determined, though quiet ; and maintain the
process and position for fifteen or even thirty minutes
if necessary. If you become fatigued, if your patient's
eyes remain unaffected, desist and ask him how he
feels. If he declares that he has not felt anything
unusual, and the appearance of his eyes and general
state confirm his declaration, you may discontinue this
process. You must hardly expect to succeed by it this
time ; you must rather try to coax or soothe him to
sleep by quiet passes. This process of holding hands
and gazing is in general the most speedy way of
inducing mesmeric states ; but it will not succeed with
some persons who are susceptible by another process.
It in certain instances rather produces vigilance than
sleep. An inexperienced operator must also be watch-
fid for himself if he uses this process, lest he become
the mesmerised person instead of the mesmeriser.
Many instances have occurred when the would-be
operator has been unconsciously mesmerised by the
intended subject.

If, soon after commencing the process, your subject's
eye dilates and seems fixed with an increased intensity
he is probably beginning to be influenced ; continue
your position and present process a short time and he
will perhaps close his eyes. The eyes will either remain
closed, or he may open them and renew his stare. In
the latter case wait a little, and he will close and open
the eyes, — and again close and open the eyes, — and so
continue until at length they close and do not open.

MESMERIC FUOCESSES. 91

You then quietly, and without speaking, commence
making gentle passes, with one or both hands, over
the forehead and eyes clown to the neck or chest.
Always remember that this, " without speaking," is a
positive rule in mesmerising, — use your hands, eyes,
and will, but do not talk ; using your tongue will not
assist but impede your efforts when really commenced.
Make these quiet passes without contact ; but if,
whilst making passes, the eyes re-open, you may
softly touch the eyelids, close them, and keep them
down with two fingers of one hand or a finger of each
hand. You must repeat this process, or continue it
until the eyes seem decidedly closed without any
power or tendency to re-open. If instead of closing
spontaneously they remain fixed and open — which is
often the case — you may softly close them with your
fingers, and continue as if they had closed without
your assistance. You may next lengthen the passes,
beginning at the crown of the head, without contact,
drawing the hand or hands slowly downwards before
the face, — rest a few seconds and point at the eyes, —
continue to the chest or epigastric region, — rest and
point there a few seconds then draw them to the hips
or knees, and off, as will be directed when telling
how to make passes. You may repeat this process
for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. Then desist,
but keep your attention fixed on the subject ; if he
is quiet let him alone, if he shows any signs of
arousing renew the passes.

Many subjects, on first trials, will remain quiet and
seemingly asleep as long as you make passes, and
arouse as soon as ever you leave off; in these cases
you must just have patience, and continue the passes
until you are tired or wish to discontinue the opera-
tion, when you will at once proceed to demesmerise,
as if he were soundly asleep, and not speak until he
be perfectly aroused, unless it be to say " remain
quiet, I am going to awaken you." I have already

92 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

stated a reason for announcing to the subject your
intention of awakening him.

Never ask him questions or lead him to reflect on
his state, until you have reason to suppose that a
decided state is established ; it can do neither you
nor him any good, and may do harm by accustoming
him to reflect on the condition he may be in on a
subsequent occasion. His state should be as passive
as possible; if you lead him to reflect you awaken
his activity, it is time enough for him to reflect when
sleep-waking is developed.

If the patient seems to sleep only 'whilst you con-
tinue the passes, you will renew the state on the next
occasion ; repeat the passes for a time, then cease and
watch for the result, and recommence as before if
necessary.

After pursuing this course for some few times the
effect of the influence will deepen, and you may de-
sist from making passes without finding your subject
arouse himself. This is generally the rule, but an
exception may occur; if so you must have patience
and continue the passes until you wish to restore your
patient to his natural state, even should it be necessary
to persevere with the passes every time and the whole
of the time that he may be mesmerised.

When the patient begins to feel the mesmeriser's
influence there are generally produced certain symp-
toms or signs of it, which may be observed by the
operator and afford him indications of probable suc-
cess. The circulation and respiration become slightly
accelerated: the beat of the pulse increases in number;
there is an elevation of the patient's temperature ; the
secretory organs are stimulated to an increase of activity ;
tears flow ; there is increased secretion of saliva which
the patient swallows; a slight perspiration is perceived
on the skin. These indications are favourable signs ;
when you see them, persevere with the process. They

MESMERIC PROCESSES. \J6

may not be all presented ; the flow of tears is seldom
absent at first experiments, and is partly owing to the
keeping up a steady gaze, but not entirely, as mes-
merism particularly affects the eyes even when the
patient is directed to close them and is mesmerised
by passes ; or it may be exactly the reverse ; the cir-
culation may be retarded and the patient shiver and
become cold ; this occurs in nervous patients sometimes
and is not a favourable indication for the learner's
experiment ; it is a frequent premonitor of an approach-
ing fit, or of convulsions, or shows that the influence
does not agree with the patient. In such cases an
experienced operator may do very well, and make all
comfortable and right before he finishes; but an in-
experienced learner had better desist and try some
other subject, or the same at another time.

A curious appearance sometimes presents itself also
during the process ; the patient's vision becomes ob-
scured— a cloud or mist like smoke seems to him to
envelope the operator's face, which becomes dark or
indistinct, — or the face may appear as if greatly mag-
nified— perhaps distorted — he may at last see no face
— nothing but eyes — or one very large eye. Some
operators when they make powerful use of their will
see the patient's face as if it were covered with a cloud
of violet or blue light — or of blue light mixed with a
pale silvery light like moonlight. I have very often
perceived this singular appearance when I have strongly
exercised my will-power; and have ascertained by com-
paring experiences with patients, and making signals
at the time without speaking — by pressing the hand —
that when they saw my face become dark or indistinct
I at the same moment saw theirs illuminated by this
light, or semblance of light.

Involuntary laughter, yawning, deep sighs, a sense
of oppression or constriction in the chest, of choking
in the throat, convulsive twitching of the extremities,
and sometimes a tendency to retching and feeling of

94 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

sickness, are other signs presented that the patient is
affected by the influence. These are all symptoms
common to hysterical persons at the periods of their
nervous attacks, and when developed in mesmerised
subjects are merely indications of nervous disturbance.
Unless they are accompanied by cold perspirations,
shivers, and trembling, the learner may go on and not
be troubled about them ; they will soon subside and
the patient succumb to the influence. I have even
seen positive emesis take place, and the patient be
obliged to relieve the stomach of its contents ; and
what matters it if we are mesmerising our patient for
disease ? — nothing : it possibly does him good. If the
learner is merely operating for an experiment to try
his power, this may be pushing the matter a little too
far and as well avoided, we have no right to cause
another distress whilst we are merely seeking to gratify
our own curiosity. If some of these symptoms appear
in conjunction with cold shivers and cold perspiration,
I say to the learner desist. I do not like to observe
these last symptoms in new patients ; they only occur
in very sensitive and irritable nervous temperaments,
and when mismanaged are likely to leave the patient
weak and irritable, and appearing all the worse for
the experiment which has been tried.

When the above process of gazing at the eyes,
holding hands, and short passes does not succeed, we
may succeed very well by long passes ; indeed to mes-
merise by long passes is generally the most agreeable
method to patients, although not the most speedy one.
When I mesmerise by passes alone I place my patient
on a sofa in a recumbent position, the head well and
comfortably supported by pillows, and not too much
depressed, but rather elevated. I stand at the side of
my patient, take his hand in mine, look at his face
or eyes, and remain quiet in this position for a few
minutes. I then place his hands comfortably beside
his person, and — telling him softly to look at my eyes

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 95

— raise my hands to his head, and make quiet passes
to his knees ; throw them off gently to the right and
left; raise them to the head again ; draw them down-
wards over the face, chest, abdomen, down to the
knees, and repeat again and again, very softly, slowly,
and silently ; and continue this monotonous process
until he sleeps, or some other decided effect is produced,
or I grow weary, or a reason is presented for changing
the process.

It is sometimes better that the patient should shut
his eyes, and allow them to remain closed — the very
effort to maintain them open keeping him vigilant and
disturbing the soothing influence which would lull him
into forgetfulness and sleep. Any or all of the nervous
symptoms of mesmeric influence may be presented by
patients tried by this process, just as by the previous
one, but are not so likely to occur. The one process is
like forcing them to sleep — this one is like coaxing
them to sleep.

Another very effectual process is to put one hand
on the patient's head and point with the fingers of the
other hand at his eyes, making him stare at your
finger-ends — at the same time keeping absolute silence,
and your attention concentrated on your effort, which,
if successful, you finish by passes.

When these means have been fairly and repeatedly
tried and failed, I have often succeeded by seating my
patient on a stool, or on a chair with his arm over the
back, or making him recline on one side on a sofa, and
standing behind him, mesmerise him by passes made
down the spine, commencing them at the top of the
head, drawing down the spine gently to the hips and
off, and repeating until the patient sleeps, or I choose
to desist from the experiment. This method may in
some cases be still more effectual if we seat the patient
opposite to a looking-glass ; look at the eyes as re-
flected in the glass, — make him look at ours in the
same way, — and make passes down the spine. I have

96 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

succeeded by this last mode in getting sleep when
every other means had failed.

With some few subjects the gazing, or making
passes, or any active process whatsoever, disturbs or
prevents the accession of sleep, although the patient
may be strongly influenced and feels sleepy, and is
all but asleep. We may persevere, and he progresses
no farther ; he remains at the " all-but-asleep." When
this occurs sit quietly by him ; place the palm of one
hand gently on the forehead, and of the other on the
chest or abdomen ; retain them there, and the " all
but" may soon be quite asleep. This plan often suc-
ceeds with certain subjects better than gazing, or
passes, or any other process — even to commence with
— and is generally found a powerful means of deepening
sleep when it is already induced, and not so deep or
persistent as may be desired.

Another method I have tried with success, and
generally use with difficult patients. I place them in
the recumbent position on a sofa in a quiet room ; cover
with shawls if needful ; and make them as comfortable
as possible. I give my patient a thorough mesmerising,
until I see him placid and disposed to sleep. Still my
presence seems to disturb and prevent sleep. I there-
fore apprise the patient that I am about to quit him
for a short time, and require that he remains still until
I come again to him. I draw the curtains and make
the room quite dark and leave the patient alone,
taking care there shall be no noise to disturb him. In
a quarter or half an hour I return, and frequently find
my patient asleep — in true mesmeric sleep. I have
left him with a strong doze of the influence; he under-
stands he is to stay where he is until my return ; he is
in the dark, with nothing to amuse or disturb him ;
he falls into a reverie, and the influence, no longer
resisted by mental activity, produces its required effect.

Mesmeric influence may be impressed upon some
persons by mere will, no manipulations being used ;

mesmeric processes; 97

we may also succeed with persons who have not ac-
knowledge of the attempt being made. It is not every
one who can exercise this kind of power; and I imagine
but a small proportion of persons are so susceptible as
to succumb to such influence unless they have been
rendered highly sensitive by frequent mesmerising. I
have tried it upon strangers in a railway carriage or
omnibus, and in a few instances seen yawning, dozing,
and marked evidence of mesmeric influence produced ;
the premonitory symptoms have appeared, and I have
no doubt that a decided state might have been obtained
by persevering had I permitted myself to do it. Such
an experiment upon a stranger is cruel — morally
wrong — and legally, I presume, would be decided an
assault. The enthusiasm of young mesmerisers and
the desire of ascertaining the reality of such power
may lead a person to make these experiments which
are better avoided, being in most instances an abuse of
the power. I have long since ceased the attempt,
excepting in two instances, both of noisy, troublesome,
cross, and crying children — one in a railway carriage
and the other in an omnibus. In each instance I
willed the little rogue to be quiet and sleep, and in
each case the attempt seemed to succeed. One slept
in about seven minutes, and the other in three. I
cannot be positively certain that they slept in conse-
quence of my attempt ; I only know that they were
exceedingly annoying to other passengers and trouble-
some to their mothers or nurses — that I looked at
them and willed sleep and they became speedily quiet
and slept.

This power is not without its use. Every natural
power whatsoever is given to man for some use ; the
Great Giver of Good gives his creatures no vain gift ;
the creature who receives is responsible to the Giver
for the use which he makes of the gift, and therefore
the exercise of this power is right or is wrong just as
we use it.

FI

98 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

I may be in error, but I attribute to this power the
possibility of influencing persons and causing them to
sleep the mesmeric sleep when at a distance from the
operator. That a person at a distance of many miles,
and wholly unconscious of the experiment made upon
him, can be put into a mesmeric sleep or state by the
action of another is I confess a startling assertion to
make — a " mesmeric wonder" not easy to believe. It
is nevertheless a most positive and well-ascertained
fact — one which I have had ample proof of in my own
experience — and which can be confirmed by the expe-
rience of others whose veracity it would be dishonest
to attempt denying. For I hold it to be a breach of
rectitude and common honesty to affirm or to assert
indirectly that a man of character, whose word would
be received as truth on indifferent matters, is guilty of
falsehood when he narrates a circumstance which
merely appears impossible because new and strange
to the man who is ignorant of the subject. I could
give many instances of the success of this power from
the experiences of others, but refrain purposely from
extending the limits of this little volume, excepting to
give one or two of my own, which really belong to
me, and being original can be presented to the reader
as not borrowed from the writings of others.

"When I first determined to ascertain for myself if
the assertion of this power as made by others was
correct, I did not lose sight of the possibility of its
being exercised, if successfully, on a subject at an
improper time, or under injudicious circumstances.
The subject might be seated near the fire, and fall into
it when asleep, or might be affected when in a situation
in which success would be dangerous or prejudicial.
If I apprised my intended subject previously of my
intention, could I be sure that anticipation and imagi-
nation did not produce the effect? If I acquainted the
friends or attendants, might they not communicate
some impression of my purpose, and thus introduce

MESMERIC PROCESSES. !>9

an element of uncertainty? However, I selected a
case free from tlicse objections. I had a patient, Miss

M. M , who was very susceptible to mesmeric

influence, who resided about half a mile from me, and
who had regular aud peculiar habits which I was well
acquainted with. She was subject to fits ; had been
more kindly than wisely indulged in certain whims ;
and one of them was to sit up at night, attended by
a maid-servant only, when her parents and family had
retired to rest. I knew that towards midnight she was
always sitting talking to this servant, and did not
apprehend any danger if I did succeed in putting her
asleep at this time. I accordingly made the attempt
one night by willing it strongly, placing a chair before
me and making a few passes before her ideally, but
as if she had been really seated thereon. I mesmerised
for five minutes ; waited five minutes ; and then demes-
merised. Next morning the patient, attended by this
servant, came for a customary doze of mesmerism ;
and after she was asleep, the following colloquy
between the servant and myself ensued. a Well,
Anne, at what time did Miss M. go to bed last night?"
" About half-past one, sir." " Ah ! that is bad ; why
don't she go to bed as she ought to do ?" " She won't
till she is sleepy, for master or mistress either."
u Why, what do you amuse yourselves with ?" " We.
don't do nothing — we don't amuse ourselves ; I work

and make up my caps." " Does M go to sleep ?"

" No, sir ; she is afraid to sleep, for fear a fit should
come ; she would never go to bed, if master did not
call down the stairs and scold at her." " Did she go
to sleep last night at all ?" " No, not to speak of."
u But did she at all ? I want to know if she ever does
sleep ?" " She may sometimes ; I don't always notice
her ; she was sleepy last night, when she was eating
some bread and butter for her supper. She said she
felt the same as when you mesmerise her, and laid her
head on the table, and dropped her victuals on the

h 2

100 MESMEEIC PROCESSES.

floor ; but I don't know that she slept. She soon got
up, and I had to cut her some more ; she would not
eat that for fear it was dirtied." " What o'clock was
it ?" " Our clock had gone twelve." The time co-
incided with the time of my attempt ; and therefore it
seemed as if my attempt had been successful. But
one successful experiment of this sort is not a sufficient
proof. The concurrence of M.'s sleep and my operation
might have been accidental, though the probability of
my having induced it was somewhat strengthened by
her remark that she "felt as if I was mesmerising her."
I therefore repeated this experiment again and again,
and always with similar success, — and yet did not feel
a certain amount of incredulity quite dissipated. The
time I chose was one when sleep might naturally
occur. If I selected an hour in the day, when I did
not know how my subject was engaged, I might do
some mischief.

However: one night, in 1845, we were visited by a
more than usually severe storm of thunder and light-
ning ; it commenced before eleven o'clock and raged
terrifically for two hours. My patient's mother I knew
to be very timid at such storms, and that she would
not go to bed or allow her family to do so during the
storm. Here was a good opportunity to test my power.
Natural sleep, under the circumstances, was not to be
expected. At five minutes to twelve — during the
height of the storm — I mesmerised my subject, our
relative distance apart being, as before stated, about
half a mile. I demesmerised at five minutes past
twelve. Next morning I enquired from Anne, "Did

M go to sleep last night before she went to bed ?"

" Mistress would not let any one go to sleep ; she is
the wrong one for that when she is frightened, but I

think M went to sleep in the garden." " In the

garden ? how came she to be sleeping in the garden ?"
" She wasn't sleeping in the garden but mistress told
her and I to go into the garden and see if the thunder

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 101

looked likely to go off; and while we were walking on

the gravel looking at the lightning M put her

head on my shoulder and said she wanted to go to
sleep, and I told her she had better then go and sleep
on the sofa, and made her lift her head up ; and when
she was going into the house she laid hold of the
garden palings, and laid her head down on them, and
.staid ever so long so." " Did she sleep then?" " I
didn't see her eyes ; but she wouldn't speak to me
when I spoke to her." " What o'clock was it ?"
" Some of the clocks* on the Green struck twelve while
her head was on the palings." After this I communi-
cated to my patient that I had the power of mesmerising
her at a distance. But although she acknowledged
feeling sleepy, and sleeping as if mesmerised, she was
by no means disposed to attribute it to my operation.
She was quite aware that I could mesmerise her
through a wall,-J- but half a mile off was another affair.
" How could the mesmerism get to me ? It must come
through the air after it got out of your house and the
wind would then blow it away," she used to say. I
several times afterwards mesmerised her by arrange-
ment when I was in London, with apparent success,
though twenty miles distant. On two occasions I
tried to produce the same effect, when she was at some
merry-making parties, dancing, &c. Here my attempt
was a failure ; the circumstances in which she was
placed defeated the influence.

I had a more striking experience soon after these
trials of the power. My professional occupation caused
me to reside away from my family, who lived in the
neighbourhood of Camden Town, whilst my residence
in Essex was distant twenty miles at least " as the
crow flies." At this time my wife, who had not been
previously mesmerised, was suffering severely from a
presumed engorgement of the spleen, and was under
the customary medical treatment, but did not take
* Cottagers' clocks. f I often had done so.

102 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

opiates as tliey invariably caused delirium instead of
sleep. One Sunday morning I received a letter from
her in which she stated that she was no better ; and
that pain, restlessness, and irritability deprived her of
sleep at night ; that she was often in the night obliged
to rise from her bed, sit in a chair, or walk the room
for an hour or two at a time, feeling so much distressed
that she could not remain in a recumbent position, and
too irritable to sleep. On receiving this intimation I
determined to try my power of mesmerising at a
distance that very night. I considered that at half-
past eleven she would certainly have retired for the
night, and accordingly at that time commenced willing
her to sleep, and making passes in the direction of the
north of London, as if my influence could reach to her.
I also willed that she should know that I was mes-
merising her. I continued this operation for upwards
of half an hour. Next evening, Monday, I wrote to
Mrs. Barth telling her of my attempt, and enquiring
if she had felt anything unusual. On Tuesday morning
I received from her a letter written on Monday after-
noon, and which had therefore, be it observed, crossed
mine in course of post transit. In this letter she stated
— " a curious thing happened to me last night : I went
to bed soon after ten o'clock, but as usual I could not
sleep. In about an hour I was obliged to get up, and
sat thinking, and sometimes walking about. By-and-
bye I drew up my blind, and looked out of window at
the gardens and railway. Whilst I was looking such
a dreadful sleepiness came over me I could scarcely
keep my eyelids open, they seemed as if they were being
drawn down by little threads, I felt quite overpowered
by it, and at the same time a strong impression came
into my mind that you was mesmerising me ; it was as
plain and distinct as if a whisper had told it me, only
no whisper was audible. I felt alarmed, and thought
' what should I do ?»' I next thought that if you were
mesmerising me the best thing I could do was to get

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 103

into bed again and be quiet, which I did and slept
soundly until this morning, and was so soundly asleep
that they brought me my tea three times before they
could awaken me to take it. Now was not this curious?
Had you anything to do with it?" The receipt of this
letter on Tuesday morning gratified me by an assur-
ance of the complete success of my Sunday night's
operation, and my letter to my wife, already dispatched,
explained to her the cause of (and my participation in)
her sudden and sound sleep. We immediately, and
mutually, corresponded by letter again on the subject,
and I arranged to induce sleep nightly, at half-past
eleven, by this distant operation, and succeeded in
doing so for many consecutive nights. This was put
an end to by the illness of a child who had hooping-
cough. His mother would not entrust him at night to
the care of a servant, and wrote to me begging me to
desist from my nightly mesmerising, as she could not
resist the influence, and became unable to attend to
the child, who she feared might be choked by the
paroxysms of cough were she unable to raise him up
and pay the requisite attention to him. We next
settled to have the sleep at half-past three or four
every afternoon ; and this also succeeded until dis-
continued at my wife's earnest request, as casual
visitors were sometimes present with her at the time.
The tendency to sleep duly and suddenly came on,
she did not like to explain the cause as it would
appear to them monstrously absurd and ridiculous ;
and struggle as she would against it she still kept
dozing, and dreaming, and making mat apropos replies
to their conversation, which she feared would really
lead them to imagine she had indulged in a habit
opposed to ebriety. I could adduce various other
striking instances of the possibility of inducing sleep
on distant persons which have occurred in my per-
sonal experience.

Although in operating for the purpose of influencing

104 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

a distant subject I generally use my hands and make
passes as well as exercise the will, I still believe the
will-power to be the efficient agent. I have succeeded
in these experiments by will alone ; but never by
merely making passes in the direction of the subject
without will. The latter is necessarily a futile experi-
ment ; it can hardly be made without will. I can
raise and depress my hands without having any
determined purpose for so doing but such passes are
not mesmeric passes, or if they influence slightly,
when nearly in contact with a subject, they will not
influence distant persons. To succeed in this opera-
tion, I think it is also necessary to have a vivid and
distinct mental vision or picture of the subject at the
time and during the whole time of operating present
to the mind. We must endeavour to feel as if present
with the absent person to be influenced. The more
strongly we are able thus to mentally or ideally asso-
ciate ourselves with the subject the more strongly
shall we be enabled to bring him within the sphere of
our influence.

If we allow our thoughts to wander from a person
who is being mesmerised and to become concentrated
on another — although that other is distant from us —
we might influence that other instead of the person
intended; hence the necessity of concentrativeness.
A mesmeriser, whilst operating, should have only one
person and one idea present to his mind.

I have already stated that, under peculiar circum-
stances, the will-power may be very properly used —
my wife's case is an example of its proper use — but it
is also a power which might be very much abused. I
am in possession of a few startling circumstances
relating to a probable mis-use of the power — circum-
stances which would partially explain the belief of a
past age in bewitchment ; but I am trying to instruct
as to the use and not the abuse of mesmeric power
and therefore will leave them untold.

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 105

I have given details of the customary methods of
mesmerising, but I cannot say that I know of any
process which deserves to be considered as especially
more proper than another. Some mesmerisers use one
method, some prefer another ; some, like myself, use
any and every process which they think likely to be
successful. I am perfectly certain, from personal
experience and observation, that the mode of mes-
merising is not a matter of indifference in many cases,
and deem it more than probable that it is never a
matter of indifference in any case where we mesmerise
to cure a disease ; when we mesmerise for mere
experiment it may then be an indifferent matter which
process we choose. The only safe and prudent rule
will be to allow the circumstances of each individual
case to guide us as to the methods we should employ.
I will endeavour, in a subsequent section, to give the
learner a few general hints on this part of our subject.

MESMERIC PASSES

Are used by all mesmerisers, and are merely certain
movements of the hand or hands made near to or
over a subject. I think that in order to render these
passes really effective they must be accompanied by
an exercise of the operator's volition. It is not pos-
sible to make passes without some volition ; we must
will to raise the hand and depress it again ; but the
volition which should accompany mesmeric passes is a
special volition ; we must will to produce some desired
effect, and to produce it by the aid of these passes to
render them truly effective mesmeric passes. The very
art of the mesmeriser requires that he should know
what effect ought to be produced in a given case, and
to know how, and be able by his art to obtain the
effect. When a learner makes passes they must there-
fore be accompanied by a special intention. The will

106 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

is the primary active agent, the hands the instruments
by which the influence set in motion by the will is
communicated. When I raise my hand and arm and
knock down a man by a blow (supposing I did such
an act) with my fist, the will is really the active agent,
the arm and hand the instruments by which the will
operates. Mesmerisers believe, or act as if they
believed, that the peculiar nervous force which pro-
ceeds from the brain, or is rendered active by the
brain when we perform a voluntary act, can be pro-
jected from certain portions of the mesmeriser's person
more readily and directly than from other portions.
When we use our hands we consider that this force is
communicated most effectually from the tips of the
fingers, the inside of the fingers, and palms of the
hands. On making passes we therefore always pre-
sent these parts of the hand to our subject.

To make passes the operator must slightly separate
and curve the fingers, and not let the arms be quite
stiff and straight, but rather flexed at the joints ; he
must feel at ease and his arms and hands remain at
ease, his motions will then be easy and natural. He
commences by presenting the inner surface of the
hand and finger-tips to the head of the patient, or
upper part of his person, projecting his nervous force
upon the patient from his hands, and drawing the
hands steadily and slowly downwards until he takes
them off. He takes them off by separating them and
removing or waving to the right and left ; and while
at a distance from the patient's person he again raises
them, turning the back part of the hands to the patient
until they have attained a proper elevation for again
presenting and repeating the pass. These passes must
all be made in one direction ; that is why we turn the
back of the hand when ascending, as we consider that
the influence does not escape from the back part ; if
we did not turn the hand or remove it to a distance
from the patient, the upward passes would neutralise

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 107

the downward passes and no effect would be produced ;
we should be constantly doing and undoing, by making
our passes give off influence whilst descending and
ascending. If the learner understands, or can ascer-
tain the method generally employed for rendering an
unmagnetised steel bar magnetic by streaking it with
a permanent magnet, he will understand why this rule
must be observed in mesmerising or exercising animal
magnetism with the human hand.

As a general rule magnctisers never make upward
passes from the feet to the head — they are said to be
in some cases mischievous ; I know that they produce
headache and other uncomfortable sensations on many
patients, and therefore should not be tried unless it be
imperative to arouse a sleeper, or to restore a limb
which has been temporarily paralysed by downward
passes, and the customary means have failed ; we may
then try a few upward passes, but should discontinue
them as soon as the desired result is obtained.

Passes made with one or both hands in one direction
and continued from one extremity of the person to the
other are called by mesmerisers " long passes."

Passes may be made at a distance of two or three
inches from the patient's person, or if these seem to
irritate him, we may remove to a distance of two or
three feet, or even more, and our passes will still be
efficacious, and in many cases be more comfortable and
soothing than close passes.

Passes may sometimes be advantageously made in
contact or by friction, especially on paralysed limbs.

Passes in general should be made slowly ; a pass
from head to knees or feet of an average-sized person
should occupy from twenty to thirty seconds or even
more. In rheumatism of the muscles strong and brisk
passes are more efficacious than slow.

The methods of operating which I have just given,
are those principally used by mesmerisers when they
wish to put a patient under the general influence of

108 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

mesmerism. When they wish to apply the influence
to a part only, they direct the operation to the part and
call this " local mesmerism."

A very powerful method of directing the influence
to a part, is by placing a folded linen or silken hand-
kerchief over the part, then take a deep breath and
breathe the warm air from the lungs strongly upon
the part; the lips should be placed closely upon the
handkerchief and the operator breathe or blow with
considerable force ; when this very simple process is
properly managed, patients are often astonished at the
sensation of warmth which can thus be communicated
to a deep-seated internal organ. It often succeeds in
spasms and rheumatic pains much better than passes.

Many mesmerisers recognise in themselves, by cer-
tain sensations combined with an intention, and in
their subjects by certain effects produced, two modes of
operating, which may be considered as using positive
and negative influence.

When we are acting positively we try to impart
healthy influence to our patient by projecting it from
ourselves ; when we operate by the negative method
we are not trying to throw power from ourselves, but
to take from or withdraw diseased influence from the
patient. Passes made with this latter intention may
be called drawing-off passes or negative passes^ to
distinguish them from the others which may be
characterised as positive passes.

I am not prepared to assert as an indisputable fact,
that in one instance a power proceeding from ourselves
is really projected into the patient, and in the other
that a power proceeding from the patient is attracted
out of him by our operation. I give it as an opinion,
which I believe in common with many others, and
advise the learner to assume it as truth — just as he
receives the assumption of a mesmeric influence. The
effects produced by mesmerising are positive facts;
the methods used to produce the effects are likewise

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 100

ascertained facts. The effects are real effects, and the
methods real causes ; but the nature of the peculiar
influence by which the cause produces the effect is not
yet wholly ascertained. That there must be a special
influence is undoubtedly true and may be safely
believed. The particular character of this influence —
its primary source — the laws governing its action — and
various other matters which have a special relation to
it, are only partially known.

I advise the learner to assume that it is possible to
project influence, — or act positively ; and to withdraw
influence, — or use the negative action ; because, by
exercising the mesmeric power with such intention,
he will be often enabled to apply it efficiently ; when
by mesmerising blindly, without having any definite
purpose, he may fail to do good and perhaps do harm.

When we mesmerise in order to produce some cu-
rious and wonder-exciting experiments certain methods
must be employed ; they are simple enough, although
marvellous effects result.

To obtain rigidity in a limb we extend the limb ;
hold it extended a few seconds and make strong lon-
gitudinal passes, with or without contact, over it ; or
we go behind our subject and extend our own limb
beside his in juxta-position, stiffening it, and holding
a few seconds. The state of our own limb is by
sympathy induced in his. We suddenly withdraw
our own limb and leave his in the induced state.

To lock a jaw desire the patient to open his mouth
wide, and make two or three passes from the angle
of the jaws to the chin ; or desire him to close his
teeth and make a few similar passes ; or close your
own teeth firmly and look him in the face, willing that
his remain closed, suddenly withdraw your attention
from him and the closed state of your jaws remains
impressed on his.

To cause apparent adhesion make your subject place
his hand on a chair or table, then present your own

110 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

hand over, and press — though without making contact
— with a certain force, say fifty pounds. Suddenly
remove your hand, and his remains on the table or
chair affixed seemingly by a force of fifty pounds, or
perhaps much more, because it appears pressed down
by a force which he cannot overcome at all by his
volition. A bystander must use a considerable force,
perhaps as if of fifty pounds, in order to raise it.
Experiments of this class admit of many variations,
which may be similar in kind though dissimilar in
mere effects. You may give a subject a ruler or stick
to hold in his hand ; tell him to close his hand firmly
on it ; then close your own hand, and suddenly with-
draw your special attention. His hand remains firmly
closed upon the object, and he is not able to unclose
his hand and let it fall although you tell him to drop
it. Now desire him to hold it fast ; close and unclose
your own hand ; and direct your attention upon him,
willing that he drop it. Your will, and the unclosed
state of your hand, is communicated to him by sym-
pathy and overpowers his volition ; he uncloses his
hand and drops the stick, notwithstanding his own
effort and wish to retain it.

It is quite unnecessary for me to describe the curious
experiments of this class which are frequently per-
formed. They are all induced much in the same way.
They are more curious than useful in one sense, but
are beautiful examples of a physiological fact — that the
peculiar nervous sympathy established betwixt the
parties, or the strong will of the operator acting on an
induced morbid sensibility of the subject, enables one
party to obtain a predominant power of volition over
the volition of the other.

To exercise traction the learner must make tractive
movements towards himself. To draw a person's hand
hold your own hand a few seconds over it, and gently
draw up your hand, willing or expecting the other to
follow yours. Repeat the process a few times, and if

MESMERIC PROCESSES. Ill

the patient is susceptible to traction his hand will
follow yours. By drawing with both hands towards
your own person you may draw a susceptible person
to you from a considerable distance, notwithstanding
his efforts to prevent the effect. I have drawn a little
girl across a room to me whilst a lady was holding her
around the waist and trying to prevent her coming to
me. I pulled strongly, as if by an imaginary rope
attached to my little subject, and pulled the pair across
the room six or seven yards until the child touched
me — the lady and child both being awake.

By using repelling gestures, with a corresponding
intention, you may prevent your subject from ap-
proaching you, however much he may strive to do so ;
or you may push him away from you, or about the
room, without actually touching or putting your hands
in contact with his person.

We all naturally use these processes when acting
under emotion or excitement. We extend our arms
when we invite the approach of a child or very dear
friend, using the attractive influence and wish of
" come to me, dear one." We extend our arms and
use the repulsive force when we would repel or prevent
the approach of one strongly disagreeable to us —
" stand off, fellow! don't come near me" — suiting the
action to the word. These actions are all instinctive
or natural to us. Possibly physicians may not under-
stand the use of them, but it is not improbable that
Nature does and did when she gave us the instinct to
use them.

To produce phreno-mesmeric experiments we point
or put the tip of a finger over an organ, and hold it
there a few seconds until the excitement of its function
is manifested ; it is sometimes enough to excite one
organ, sometimes we must excite the same organ in
each hemisphere of the brain before we obtain a
response. After exciting one mental faculty, we
should breathe and blow upon its organs to dispel the

112 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

excitement before we excite another, unless we design
to have two in action. If we neglect this we may
have several organs in partial action and the mani-
festation we desire will come out imperfectly. We
may excite the cerebral organs of persons who are
in their natural state, or of persons in sleep-waking
or in deep sleep. When the subject is in the deep
sleep the excitement arouses him into an imperfect
sleep-waking state and he relapses into insensible
sleep the moment the finger is removed from the
organ. Phreno-mesmeric experiments upon persons in
the deep sleep I think present the most beautiful
instances of the phenomena ; the contrast exhibited
betwixt the manifestation of activity whilst the finger
rests above an organ, and the instant death-like
insensibility when the finger is removed is very
striking.

I give no instructions for processes with respect to
the phenomena of community of taste and feeling,
because this is not a state which can be induced by
any particular process ; it occurs during a mesmeric
treatment as it were spontaneously, and its establish-
ment depends rather upon some peculiar harmony or
sympathy naturally existing betwixt the mesmeriser
and his subject than upon processes. The methods
of testing the phenomena are so obvious that it cannot
be necessary to describe them. The experiments may
be made interesting by causing eight or ten persons to
form a chain by holding one another's hands, place the
subject at one end of this chain and the mesmeriser at
the other, and in many cases, whatsoever the latter
tastes or feels is tasted or felt by the subject as dis-
tinctly as if the mesmeriser had his hand. With some
subjects the sympathy is so strong that the mesmeriser
need not touch the subject in order to form the com-
munication, their relation will be sufficiently intimate
when in a room together.

113 )

DEMESMERISING OR AWAKENING PROCESSES.

To demesmerise or remove the influence we proceed
to act as if the power which we had projected into our
patient could be drawn out of him and dispersed, by
blowing, fanning, making transverse passes, the appli-
cation of cold, and a few upward passes if indispensably
necessary.

In performing any of these acts the will or intention
must, as a matter of course, have relation to or direct
the act. For instance, you must not make transverse
passes and will or wish that your patient continues to
sleep, or make downward passes and wish him to
awaken.

Supposing your patient asleep and you have reason
to awaken him, whether he hears you or hears you not,
begin by apprising him of your intention ; if he hears
you — you prepare him for awakening and often dispose
him to assist you ; if he does not hear you, it costs
very little trouble to say " I am going now to awaken
you ;" we must remember that some mesmerised patients
hear and understand very well, although they do not
give any evidence of hearing. You then commence by
drawing your thumbs over the eyebrows or eyelids in
an outward direction, to the right and left, making
contact passes ; or by making transverse passes with
the palms of the hands. You may also blow sharply
and strongly on the eyelids a few times, or fan the
patient briskly with a handkerchief. Any or either of
these means will awaken a patient generally; some-
times one succeeds better then another ; with patients
very difficult to awaken I first try one way and then
another, and another, and then the first again, until my
patient is aroused. I first begin quietly and gently, but
if the patient does not arouse by these means I call him
by name, desire him to awake, and make brisk trans-
verse passes with contact over the head and eyebrows,

i

114 MESMERIC PROCESSES.

and trunk and arms also, — occasionally blowing on his
eyelids, and fanning him*

It may happen that yonr patient will he only half
awakened by these means, and immediately that you
desist relapse again into his sleep. If this occurs
several times, and it be imperative that you must
arouse him, put his hands into cold water, or pour cold
water over the palms of his hands, or put a wet sponge
or cloth on the back of his neck ; open a window and
let him feel the cold or fresh air ; at intervals try the
fanning and transverse passes, and persevere until he
exhibits no further tendency to relapse.

If your patient has passed into a sleep-waking state,
it is advisable always not only to tell him that you wish
to awaken him, but enquire if he can tell you how you
ought to awaken him or if he will indicate the process
by which he would like to be demesmerised, and com-
ply with his directions as far as you rationally can.
It is not necessary that the sleep-waker be clairvoyant
in order to direct in this matter ; it is often sufficient
that he knows that he sleeps or that his eyes are
closed. Some patients in sleep-waking refuse to allow
that they are asleep (and in fact they are right), they
will only acknowledge that their eyes are closed, and
that they have been mesmerised. When this is the
case you can state your intention to open the eyes, and
enquire how you shall do it. Whether it be that one
process is really more suitable than another and that
the subject instinctively perceives it or that the patient
chooses to have a whim about being aroused signifies
little ; as a general rule, if he indicates a process or
method he will be most perfectly and quickly aroused
by that method.

With some patients it may happen that you will be
able easily to restore the natural waking state and con-
sciousness, but find it difficult to open their eyes.
W'hen this occurs I have always found that applying
my lips near to the closed lids, and breathing warm air

MESMERIC PROCESSES. 110

upon them, has most speodily relaxed the spasmodic
contraction of the muscles; or breathing upon them
and then blowing cold and sharply upon them ; or after
breathing upon them the application of cold, as the
steel knob of the poker, will prove successful.

Should it occur that a patient when aroused and
the eyes opened still finds a limb stiff or powerless, we
must use transverse passes with contact, or breathing
and blowing upon, until the natural state of the limb
is restored.

I have occasionally had patients who felt weak and
powerless when demesmerised to such an extent that
they could not stand without support. In such case I
take my patient's hands in mine ; place myself exactly
opposite to him, our knees in contact; and then looking
at his face, I stiffen my own muscles in arms, legs,
neck, and back ; and have never failed in a few minutes
to make my patient feel himself strong and vigorous.
Patients have always declared themselves exceedingly
refreshed and strengthened by this process.

To make transverse passes with the hands you need
merely present the hands with the palms together to
the median line of the patient's person, then turn the
palms towards him and separate them, drawing off to
the right and left. Begin at the upper portion of
your patient's person, continue the transverse passes to
his knees, and repeat as long as may be necessary,
acting negatively — that is, with the intention of re-
moving your influence.

As a general rule, if you have mesmerised your
subject by passes, you must demesmerise by passes ;
if you have influenced him by gazing or pointing at
the eyes, you must demesmerise the eyes, and also
make the transverse passes over his person. A few
minutes only are in general required to awaken a
patient, but there are some who may require the
awakening process to be continued for half an hour
before they are sufficiently aroused.

i2

( 116

ON THE PEESISTENCE OF MESMERIC
STATES.

Cases do present themselves — though very rarely —
of persons who when put to sleep must sleep a special
time, and cannot by any means be thoroughly
awakened. If such an instance should occur to a
learner he need not be alarmed by it, the patient will
be sure to awaken spontaneously. It may be very
inconvenient to the parties concerned, — this cannot be
helped^ — we must make the sleeper as comfortable as
possible and have patience until he does awake. The
subject will be certainly benefited by his long sleep if
we only leave him to enjoy it and carefully protect
him from all disturbing influences.

It is not possible to say— before we try him — how
long a patient will sleep, or his mesmeric state persist
if we leave him to recover spontaneously ; much
depends upon the idiosyncrasy or peculiar tendency of
the patient, and something upon the action of his
mesmeriser.

After mesmerising a patient, and leaving him to
sleep it off, I find generally that in from one to two
hours he awakes, as from natural sleep, and feels
" all right," or a few wafts with a handkerchief will
soon make him so.

I have had patients who required ten or twelve
hours to elapse before they aroused spontaneously.
With some it occurs that at whatsoever time you
induce sleep it will persist the remainder of that day,
all the night, and they will awake spontaneously at
the hour in the morning at which it is their custom to

PERSISTENCE OF MESMERIC STATES. 117

arouse from natural sleep, if you do not demesmeri.se
them previously. I once put a patient into the sleep-
waking state, and the state was maintained for five
days and four nights, without any additional mesmer-
ising ; the state became at length nearly exhausted,
and the patient was in a condition which it was not
prudent to prolong, being neither asleep nor awake,
seeing one minute naturally with her eyes and then
seeing without the eyes. I therefore mesmerised her
to obtain a perfect state and then demesmerised and
restored her to her natural state. During this period
she went to bed every night and passed into the deep
sleep, arousing from it in the morning into the perfect
sleep-waking state, eating, drinking, reading, working,
and spending the day just as if she had been naturally
awake, excepting that her eyelids being closed she
saw without eyes, and had no memory of the circum-
stances of her sleep-waking when eventually restored
to her natural state.

In my extensive experience I have never met with
but one patient who could not be awakened from
sleep when I desired it, and one case of sleep-waking
when the subject would not be awakened unless she
pleased, and could not be awakened until she had
given her consent. It is necessary that I should
inform the learner of the possibility of such an occur-
rence, but it happens so rarely that he need not be
under much apprehension of being annoyed by it. In
the first of these two cases I easily dispelled the
sleeping state on the third day from its commence-
ment, the patient having partially awakened previously.

I have had patients who would only sleep a limited
time, and whose sleep could not be prolonged beyond
it. As soon as ever the time arrived they would
awaken, although I had mesmerised them all the time
they slept, or having desisted, had again commenced
mesmerising to prevent their awaking. Nor could
they be again put into the sleep until some hours had

118 PERSISTENCE OF MESMERIC STATES.

elapsed ; thus showing that they only required a
certain amount of sleep, and could not receive any
more at that time.

It is by no means unusual for the customary duration
of the sleep to lengthen after first commencing a regular
treatment, to remain stationary for a time, and then
to shorten until your patient, who may at one period
have slept several hours, will awaken in a few minutes
after being put into sleep. The increase of the sleeping
time at first is a consequence of increased suscepti-
bility ; the decrease an indication of returning health,
the patient no longer requiring the sleep.

( ii» )

MESMERIC SUSCEPTIBILITY.

There is a wide difference in amount or degree of
susceptibility to mesmeric operations found to exist
amongst different persons. Some are so easily im-
pressed that they succumb to our influence in a few
minutes' trial ; others require persevering efforts to be
used for an hour or more before any perceptible effect
is produced ; others are not mesmerised into any well-
marked mesmeric state until after many daily repetitions
of the process ; and some cannot have any decidedly
abnormal state induced at all.

I cannot tell my readers upon what causes this differ-
ence in mesmeric susceptibility depends ; some mes-
merisers believe that they can give a true and rational
solution thereof ; others would refuse to accept of their
opinions and give another solution ; mere opinions,
therefore, are better not adduced. I am quite certain
of one fact, that the amount of susceptibility is rather
dependent on the mental or cerebral than on the general
physical organisation.

Many mesmerisers consider that females are far more
impressionable than males or children, and that girls of
from 14 to 18 years are more impressionable than adult
women. Possibly this may be so in general practice,
but I cannot state that I find or have hitherto found it
so. I have succeeded in mesmerising into sleep quite
as large a proportion of males as females, and have
never found children more difficult to mesmerise than
adults. I have frequently succeeded in inducing deep
sleep in less than ten minutes' trial on strong healthy
men surpassing me in personal size and apparent

120 MESMERIC SUSCEPTIBILITY.

muscular strength ; and have failed with small delicate
nervous ladies after repeated trials.

I have always found that strong-minded self-willed
("hard-headed," to use a term more expressive than
elegant) persons are the most difficult to mesmerise into
a decided state. People who have large Firmness,
Self-esteem, and Combativeness are not easily subdued;
where these organs are moderate and Adhesiveness
and Benevolence are full, the subjugation mesmerically
is comparatively easy.

Certain diseased states predispose patients to become
susceptible of, and some diseased states prevent, the
induction of abnormal or mesmeric states.

There is also existing a peculiar sympathy betwixt
individuals which favours the action of mesmerism.
Thus, A, B, and C may each fail to mesmerise D,
and F will succeed on the first trial. I have easily
subdued a patient who had been repeatedly mesmerised
by others without any apparent effect, and have known
another succeed where I have failed. Some mesmer-
isers can only subdue persons of a certain temperament,
others can affect a large proportion of the subjects tried
by them.

This peculiar sympathy is sometimes so strong that
I have known a stranger possessing it actually take
away the influence intended for another person who
was being mesmerised in the same room. As an in-
stance : I one day commenced mesmerising a young
lady patient, who had been rendered susceptible by
frequent mesmeric operations, and who invariably
passed into sleep in a minute or two, or after three or
four passes had been made. The patient had reclined
in her accustomed place on a sofa with her head to
the north, and standing by her side I made the accus-
tomed passes, but without seeing the customary effect
follow. After persevering for some ten minutes I
exclaimed, " Why do you not go to sleep, Miss ?" her
reply was, " Why do you not make me, Sir ? I cannot

MESMERIC SUSCEPTIBILITY. 121

sleep unless you make me go." I continued some
time longer, but still my patient remained awake. I
eventually gave up the attempt, and then found that a
lady friend who had never before been present at a
mesmeric operation or been mesmerised, and who had
been sitting watching us had actually gone to sleep.
She was seated in a direct line with my patient's person,
to the northward of her. I awoke this lady and made
her take her seat in another part of the room, and then
mesmerised my patient with the usual facility. This
lady had involuntarily taken the influence which had
been intended for my patient, and her position had
some connexion with the effect, because she was not
influenced when seated in another part of the room,
but was in the one position, as I proved on repetition
for the sake of experiment. Other persons tried in
the same seat being insusceptible were not subject to
this effect.

After a patient has once been mesmerically subdued
and his state perfectly established, he will afterwards
be easily subdued,* and pass into a similar state by
whomsoever mesmerised; provided always that the
mesmeriser really does mesmerise — that is, possesses
the power of mesmerising. But the induced suscepti-
bility may be lost if a long time intervenes before the
operation is repeated, and in some cases if the patient
has been frightened or mismanaged during his mes-
meric state.

To be susceptible of passing into a deep mesmeric
sleep is an especial comfort and blessing to the pos-
sessor of this susceptibility. It is therefore a duty to
themselves, incumbent on all who have once had the

* I have found children present a marked exception to this
general rule. I have mesmerised them into deep sleep within
ten minutes at the first trial and failed in all subsequent ones.
The reason was, at first they did not know my intention ; on
subsequent trials they had discovered it and were no longer
passive but actively resisting the effects.

122 MESMERIC SUSCEPTIBILITY.

susceptibility induced to take care they do not lose
this faculty lest it fail them in the hour of need.
To maintain and retain it they must occasionally be
mesmerised by some healthy friend.

As a general rule, every thing which excites to
mental activity tends to prevent the induction of
mesmeric states ; every thing which conduces to a
passive state of mind is favourable to the induction.

There need be no doubt whatsoever that many
persons are highly susceptible of mesmeric influence
and are benefited by its application, who never pass
into any abnormal state. The production of some
mesmeric state must not be therefore looked upon as
indispensable evidence of mesmeric susceptibility. I
have known in many cases the mesmeric influence
produce an increase of mental activity and vigilance
instead of a desire to sleep ; and as to curative effects,
as many cures are made without the sleep as with it ;
this assertion is corroborated by all mesmerisers who
have had much experience. Indeed some of the most
remarkable cures effected by mesmerism have been
obtained without any sleep, or marked mesmeric phe-
nomena being produced.

( 123 )

ON THE MESMERISATION OF
INANIMATE SUBSTANCES.

I have already adverted to the fact that mesmeric
influence can be communicated to inanimate matter by
the action of the mesmeriser. This is a fact very
easily proved ; and it is a fact most important for the
learner to be satisfied respecting. When this fact is
fully recognised, the belief in the reality of mesmeric
influence is no longer an assumption based merely on
probability and hypothesis. There is an end to the
oft-repeated question, " How can your merely moving
the hands before a sick person do him any good ?" If
people can understand that something does go out
from the mesmeriser to his patient they may not find
it so very difficult to understand how the mesmeriser
does him good. Patients can also understand how
they may receive benefit, although they do not sleep
or pass into a mesmeric state.

Though the influence may not be seen to pass from
one to the other that is no reason for asserting that it
does not pass. When we hold the connecting wires of
a galvanic battery in our hands we feel its effects
although we do not see the influence. We can feel
heat without seeing it. A stone falls in obedience to
the laws of gravity but we do not see the attractive
influence which pulls it down. Diseases are commu-
nicated from one to another by infection and contagion
although we cannot detect the morbid influence in the
course of its transmission. Our noses will often afford
evidence of the existence of things which we do not
see; taste, or touch, or hearing of others; and reason

124 MESMERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES.

assures us of the real existence of many things which
are not cognisable by either of the five senses. The
man is a fool who says, " Bottle me off a pint of your
mesmeric influence, seal closely and send per bearer,
that I may subject it to chemical analysis and ascertain
its composition." Let him first learn to enclose the
sound of Jenny Lind's voice in a pill-box that we may
be able to open and listen at pleasure. When we
would examine electricity or galvanism we study them
through the media of their peculiar laws and conditions ;
if we would test the reality of mesmeric influence we
must seek our knowledge by the evidence of the effects
which it produces when subjected to its own conditions.
The learner who wishes to ascertain the possibility of
communicating mesmeric influence to inanimate matter
must mesmerise such matter and study its effects upon
susceptible persons.

In order to mesmerise an object we may hold it if
small betwixt our hands, or make passes over it, or
point at and hold the fingers over it, or breathe upon
it, or stare at it with our eyes, exercising the will as
for any other mesmeric operation. The subjects by
whom we are to test must be highly-susceptible subjects
to mesmeric influence. If we try experiments upon
those who are unsusceptible, we neglect the requisite
conditions and need not be surprised at disappointment.

If the mesmeriser has a very susceptible subject, he
(the mesmeriser) may mesmerise a handkerchief folded
a few times, by placing it on one hand and making
short passes on it with the other or by some other
method if preferred. Without telling his subject of the
purpose of the experiment, desire him to place the
handkerchief upon his head and the influence may put
him to sleep as quickly as if direct passes had been
used. Vary the experiment by trying several hand-
kerchiefs only one of which is mesmerised, and that
one alone will produce the effect. You may induce
mesmeric states by giving your subject mesmerised

IIESXERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES. 1 2">

water to drink, or by mesmerising the seat of a chair
which you afterwards invite him to sit upon, or by
mesmerising his bread and butter, and in various other
ways which I need not suggest.

These experiments answer best upon subjects who
have been frequently mesmerised, and the more often
they are repeated the more certainly and quickly they
succeed. The subjects become educated as it were
into a habit of succumbing to the influence thus
impressed upon them. This remark applies to all
mesmeric experiments.

When we mesmerise an object without having any
definite purpose, the general effect is merely to indu
sleep or sleep-waking, or the state — whatsoever it mce
be — which is habitual to the subject when mesmerised.
If we wish it to have a special effect we must mes-
merise it with that intention. It also appears to me
that if we wish to induce a phantasy or ideal delusion
in our subject, we must ourselves have a mental image
or idea of the phantasy whilst mesmerising the object.
Thus were I to intend the subject to see or believe a
black cat to be seated on a stool I would mesmerise
with that intent, and whilst operating I would have a
mental picture of a black cat on the stool present to
my mind. Again if I mesmerise a glass of water to
taste of Epsom salts I endeavour at the time to re-
member the peculiar taste of salts. If I load an object
with an imaginary weight I press over the object with
an idea of the weight and a muscular force which
might have some relation to the intended perception of
weight. If I placed a barrier across a doorway I
picture to my mind some kind of barrier and will that
it be there whilst I am making the passes.

Like all other mesmeric phenomena, the power of
communicating our influence to and from inanimate
matter has its use. I constantly mesmerise water to
act as an aperient medicine for many patients when
they need an aperient. I mesmerise handkerchiefs to

126 MESMERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES.

put tliem asleep if they are restless at night or if
circumstances interfere to prevent their customary
personal mesmerisation.

Patients when in sleep -waking (and some few in
their normal state if in darkness) can see the mesmeric
influence upon objects which have been mesmerised ;
they describe it as luminous and like spangles, or like
a cloud or luminous mist.* Many persons can perceive
a difference of taste in mesmerised water when com-
pared with the same water which is not mesmerised.
I have several times found water which has been well
mesmerised and accidentally allowed to remain exposed
to a hot sun present a slight odour of ammonia, water
from the same cistern not doing so when unmesmerised.
I know a gentleman who being regularly mesmerised
and susceptible to the influence, was on a visit to some
relatives in the country, and requested a young lady to
mesmerise him some water to drink shewing her how
to do it. The water had a very strong flavour of
brimstone afterwards, so much so that he could scarcely
drink it. On naming it he discovered that the lady at
this time was taking daily doses of brimstone and
treacle. Nervous persons will often drink a large
quantity of mesmerised water without inconvenience
and reject a small quantity of water taken if it be not
previously mesmerised. I have never been able to
distinguish mesmerised from unmesmerised water by
the taste, I am not sufficiently sensitive, but this is no
reason why others should not be able to do so ; waking
persons who can discern the taste declare it to be rather
disagreeable than otherwise, that it has somewhat of a
metallic taste or like ink. Sleep-wakers generally
relish it very much if it be mesmerised by their own
accustomed mesmerisers or by some person who they
like and whose influence is agreeable to them ; if their

* For particular details of this appearance see the Baron Yon
Reichenbach's curious and important work,

MESMERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES. 127

own mesmeriser has not mesmerised it, they usually at
once perceive the fact; indeed they can generally
distinguish if the influence which they may see on any
mesmerised object is their mesmeriser's or that of some
other person.

Dr. Storer, of Bristol, one day called upon me to
request the loan of a subject or subjects to assist him
in demonstrating mesmeric phenomena at a private
party of friends in town.* I offered him several from
my own family, amongst them a servant, named
Fletcher, who had been mesmerised very often before
she came into my house and was peculiarly susceptible.
Dr. Storer made a few passes over the seat of a chair ;
I then sent for Fletcher, and enquired if she would
permit the doctor to mesmerise her ; on her assenting
I desired her to sit down on the chair and remarked
that the gentleman would try her presently. Dr. Storer
continued in conversation with me, no direct notice
being taken of the girl who passed into sleep- waking
in two or three minutes. On asking her why she was
asleep, she laughed and replied that the gentleman
had mesmerised the chair. " How do you know that ?"
I enquired ; "I see the influence on the chair, and it
is not like yours, sir," was the reply. I was able to
put this subject into sleep- waking by any indirect
method I chose to try ; occasionally to oblige visitors
and show this class of phenomena successfully, I have
allowed them to suggest the process by which she
should be mesmerised.

It is necessary in making these experiments to be on
our guard against the disturbing element imagination
and vary the experiments ; as if mesmerisable subjects
are often sent to sleep by mesmerising their chairs,
habit and anticipation may lead the subjects to suppose
that a chair not mesmerised is mesmerised, and their
imagination will suffice to put them to sleep. They do
not deceive intentionally but are themselves deceived
* His own subjects being in Bristol.

128 MESMERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES.

by imagination. It by no means follows that imagi-
nation is the only active agent ; with some patients it
never has the slightest influence though the true effects
of the mesmeric power are easily induced. It is my
duty to advert to the power of imagination and to
caution the learner, when making testing experiments,
to take care that it does not interfere to spoil his
experiment.

I sometimes see effects produced which I do not will
or anticipate and these especially delight and interest
me. As an instance : — One evening a few friends
joined our family at the supper table, and as mesmerism
happened to be the subject of conversation, I tried an
impromptu experiment. A lady who was seated by
me had partaken of a few oysters and two remained
untouched on her plate. Before the plates were re-
moved I mesmerised this lady's and willed that it
should stick to the table. On the servants coming to
clear away I desired Fletcher to take the plate down
stairs ; she to my surprise picked it up and walked
away with it. I remarked that the experiment had
failed, and so it had as regarded the special object ;
but the influence communicated to the plate had some
effect, by the time she reached the kitchen her arm
was stiffened and rigid. Presently the cook made her
appearance to say that Fletcher could not use her arm,
and was sure her master had been playing her a trick
though she could not conceive by what means she had
been affected (remaining awake, the sleep-waking
faculty was absent, which would have informed her).
The sequel of this experiment was more interesting ;
when the servants had cleared away they finished the
oysters for their own suppers, and Mary (another sus-
ceptible person) ate the two oysters which remained
on the mesmerised plate. As soon as these oysters
(which had been undesignedly mesmerised) were com-
fortably deposited in her stomach the mesmeric in-
fluence took effect, her eyes closed and she went into

MESMER1SATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES. 129

the deep sleep which is her customary mesmeric state.
As her eyes were closing Mary remarked " Those two
oysters have done it." I never knew Mary go into
mesmeric sleep spontaneously and believe therefore
these oysters were the cause. I endeavoured to
awaken her — never having failed in doing so when
she is designedly mesmerised — but on this occasion I
could not. After persevering for a time I gave up the
attempt, ordered her to be put to bed by her fellow-
servants and succeeded in awakening her next morning
when the influence had partly expended itself.

The next time I tried this kind of experiment with
Fletcher it was successful. I mesmerised a plate and
willed that her hand should stick to it, at the sug-
gestion of a friend who wished to ascertain if it was
possible. We took care that no other servant was
present when the plate was mesmerised, arranged that
other things should go down on the supper tray and
this plate be left to be taken with the cloth, purposely
that the subject of the experiment should not have a
knowledge or suspicion of it. When supper was
ordered to be removed, another servant took the tray
and Fletcher the cloth and mesmerised plate. In a
few minutes sounds of loud laughter saluted our ears.
On enquiring what they were making so much noise
about, Mary informed us that " Fletcher could not put
down the plate and Anne and she had been trying to
take it from her but could not." When Fletcher made
her appearance the plate was so firmly grasped in her
hand that no force short of breaking the plate would
remove it. Breathing on and a few transverse passes
over the hand immediately dispelled the effect.

We must remember that time is an element in this
class as in every other of mesmeric experiments. Time
enough must be allowed for the influence to produce
its impression, it seldom does so instantly. A few
seconds or even minutes may be necessary, and some-
times longer.

K

130 MESMERISATION OF INANIMATE SUBSTANCES.

I once had a very curious experiment unexpectedly
presented by an interesting little patient whose case is
partly detailed in the Zoist for October, 1849, No. 27.
The child's customary mesmeric state was one of lucid
sleep-waking. One day for some purpose I believe to
remove a pain in the chest or back, I mesmerised a
slip of writing paper and placed it in the child's shoe
desiring her to put the shoe on. No sooner was her
foot in contact with the paper than her eyes closed and
she was in the sleep-waking state. I desired her to
take her shoe off, her eyes immediately opened and she
was awake. This was afterwards repeated frequently
to prove the fact by experiment. However often it
was done the same result ensued ; with her foot on the
paper she was in sleep-waking, the instant her foot was
lifted off the paper she immediately awoke. The paper
put on her head or chest did not produce this effect. I
had no previous anticipation of this circumstance occur-
ring nor do I know how or why it was produced, why
the patient should be more susceptible on the sole of
her foot than the crown of her head, or why the mes-
meric effect only persisted during the time whilst the
foot was in contact with the mesmerised paper ; I only
know that the fact was exactly as detailed and can be
confirmed by many who saw it.

The effects of mesmerised substances are very easily
brought out on many susceptible subjects in the waking
state when all possible care has been taken to prevent
their having any previous idea of our purpose ; we are
therefore constrained to believe that the influence of
one person and the intention combined with that in-
fluence can be communicated to inanimate matter, can
again be transferred from it, and even then retain an
active energy or operative influence on the system of
another person.

( 131 )

OF MESMERIC DANGERS.

I cannot say that the abuse of mesmerism is totally
and absolutely devoid of danger. The mesmeric power
or force is a reality and not a chimera of the imagi-
nation. It is well known that even a mere imaginary
delusion has acted upon the nervous system with suf-
ficient intensity to stop the vital activity of the system
and cause death ; and mental shocks and fright very
frequently cause epilepsy and convulsive diseases. We
cannot therefore feel surprised that so powerful and
active an agent as the mesmeric in its relation to the
nervous system, may do mischief if it be ignorantly
used or abused in its application. I never heard of a
death being caused by any abuse of it and do not
believe that mesmerism could kill directly under any
circumstances. A prudent use of mesmerism can never
injure, but if people who are totally ignorant of mes-
meric conditions will venture to try their power it is
quite possible that they may cause fits, or great cerebral
disturbance, or long-enduring prostration of mental and
physical power, or violent tremors, or severe headaches
and other mischief. The danger is not in the use but
in the abuse of mesmerism, and even this danger is
very slight as to possible mischief in the large majority
of cases. The number of persons who are totally
ignorant of mesmerism and yet attempt it must be very
great. People soon learn that passes made in such a
way will mesmerise, are tempted by curiosity to try
their power and yet the instances of mischief being-
done are very few indeed. Were they numerous we
should certainly hear of them.

As to the danger of mesmerism producing a special

k2

132 MESMERIC DANGERS.

depravity of morals, it is either an ignorant or a ma-
licious assertion of the anti-mesmerists. Bad men may
abuse the best of God's gifts. They may abuse the
Bible and religion and under the guise of especial piety
practise great wickedness, but we cannot therefore say
that especial depravity of morals is induced by the
study of the Bible and practice of religion. There is
nothing existing in creation for man's use which may
not be abused by those whose evil desires lead them to
seek how it may be perverted. There are or have been
bad men in all classes of society : ministers of religion
abusing their sacred office ; physicians violating the
confidence reposed in them when exercising their pro-
fessional duties ; roguish lawyers have been known to
exist even in this present generation; cheating merchants
and tradesmen we fear are not yet extinct ; some ladies
are not so pure and virtuous as they might be or ought
to be; and some gentlemen would rather object to have
all their private or secret transactions obtruded before
their friends. As the physician is endowed with a
capacity of sinning if he will, it would be too much
to expect an exemption in favour of the general prac-
titioner or apothecary. As the parson and lawyer have
been known to transgress moral and civil laws, can we
think that the sailor or soldier alone will respect them?
If these classes of society are not removed beyond the
possibility of falling into sin, can we hope the classes
below them in social status — the artisan, the servant,
the labourer, all more exposed to temptation and
less blessed with education and circumstances which
strengthen the power of resisting it — can we hope that
they will prove immaculate ? If we cannot find a class
of society which does not possess some members who
may not be proof against the desire to sin, where are
we to find a body of mesmerisers amongst whom there
may not be some black sheep ? As the power of
exercising mesmerism is a natural faculty common to
all mankind, bad men may exercise it as readily as

MESMER£C DANGERS.

133

good men, and they may pervert it to bad purposes.
The perversion of the power does not make the proper
use of it evil ; and to assert that it does is a clear proof
that the assertor is incapable of arriving at a rational
deduction or is devoid of the spirit of truth and Chris-
tian charity.

Some are solely opposed to mesmerism on the ground
that it must be sinful necessarily, because it may de-
prive the subject for a time of his free will, because
whilst under the influence he may no longer be a free
agent. What nonsense this is ! Who amongst us in
civilised association are always free agents? Is the
highest personage in the realm a free agent at all times ?
are any of us absolutely free agents ? Is not religion
— are not all human laws so many clogs upon our
exercise of absolute free agency ? Undoubtedly they
are ; who can deny it ? They are all especially
ordained and designed to curb man in the exercise of
this vaunted free agency. What then becomes of this
objection to mesmerism? If the mesmeriser for the
time the operation lasts does deprive the subject of
free will, and does it for the patient's benefit, the end
justifies the means ; he only does that in the singular
which is ever being done in the universal or general
for the well-being of mankind; he only does that
which every practitioner of medicine is constantly
doing and must necessarily do. Will not a few grains
of tartar-emetic deprive a man of his free will, or three
drops of croton oil deprive him of his free will ? Let
him after swallowing such a dose try to restrain its
action by his will, and he will be speedily convinced
that he has very little free agency left in the matter.
It may be urged that men are free agents to swallow
drugs ; they know what the action will be, they are not
opposed to the induction of the action and therefore
their free will is not suspended. So be it. Men are as
free agents to be mesmerised or not. If they submit to
and desire it and understand the probable effects of its

134 MESMERIC DANGERS.

action, we may presume they are not Opposed to the
induction of its effects, and therefore are free agents in
the matter just as far as when they swallow drugs.

The objection often urged that people may be made
totally insensible by the action of mesmerism without
their own knowledge and consent and that they cannot
know what may then be done to them, is evidently a
mistake of the objectors arising from ignorance of the
subject. This is done with chloroform and certain
drugs ; perhaps it is this abuse of chloroform and drugs
by wicked persons that has misled the objectors ; they
say mesmerism but mean chloroform and morphine and
extract of coculus indicus. The public journals fre-
quently inform us of cases of gross wickedness com-
mitted on persons who have been rendered insensible
and incapable of resistance by the abuse of chloroform
and other matters obtained at chemists and druggists'
shops. It is greatly to be deplored that things which
have a use should have that use perverted by bad
people ; but this is not the fault of those who prepare
the compounds, or of the physicians who patronise their
use. My readers I hope will all have common sense
enough to perceive that the bad men alone are to blame
who abuse chloroform and morphine, not the benevolent
physicians who use for a good purpose.

I have already stated that very susceptible persons
may be influenced by strong mesmerisers without their
knowledge and consent ; I have not stated that they
may be easily put into the deep insensible mesmeric
sleep. The mesmeriser who has obtained perfect mes-
meric control over a susceptible subject has this power
in a small proportion of instances but it does not admit
of being generally exercised, and very susceptible
persons are also susceptible to influences which may be
used to protect them and render it impossible that they
should be mesmerised without first being consenting
parties; it is the duty of their mesmerisers to afford
them this protection.

MESMERIC DANGERS. 135

To put a person into the deep mesmeric sleep (which
is capable of being abused as much as if it were the
drunken unconsciousness of chloroform) is generally a
work of much labour and some time ; there is very little
reason to apprehend that bad people will apply it for
bad purposes, because chloroform and narcotics are so
much more secret, easy, and speedy in their application.
We sit down opposite to a person when we mesmerise
him — take hands, look at his eyes, make passes before
him, as already told under the head " Mesmeric Pro-
cesses,"— and we cannot do this without the subject
perceiving it and enquiring our object ; chloroform
probably and drugs certainly may be administered and
the subject never know who it was that administered,
or even know how or by what means he has been
affected. The averments of dangers of this kind
brought against mesmerism are scarcely at all appli-
cable to mesmerism, but are truly applicable to
chloroform and drugs, and brandy, whiskey, wine,
and all intoxicating liquors. To be consistent there-
fore, the objectors should not only denounce mes-
merism for the barely possible danger of a mischievous
abuse, but denounce ether and chloroform and certain
drugs used in medical practice, and all intoxicating
liquors. Any danger of a wilful abuse of mesmerism
which may be apprehended to ensue under the hypo-
critical veil of a benevolent exercise of the power,
is easily obviated and rendered impossible by such
precautions as common prudence will suggest. A wise
man, with his purse full of sovereigns, will not sit
down alone in a company of total strangers and permit
himself to be mesmerised into deep sleep ; a prudent
woman need not be mesmerised at all unless under the
protection of a relative or friend, who can be a respon-
sible guarantee for her safety when she can no longer
be responsible for herself.

By another class of objectors mesmerism is con-
sidered a satanic agency and mesmcrisers as persons in

136 MESMERIC DANGERS.

league with the devil. Individuals of this class hope
to be worthy believers in the mission of Him who
taught brotherly love and charity to all mankind. I
really believe them to be honest but sorely-mistaken
traducers. I request them to investigate before they
condemn ; not to blame a thing good in itself because
they do not comprehend it — not to stigmatise a large
class because of the possible frailty of a member — not
to assert until they are prepared with certain proof—
and that when they study Holy Writ, seeking some-
thing which they may torture into an indirect denunci-
ation of mesmerism, they will also read and ponder well
on the words "Judge not, lest ye be judged" — "Whoso
speaketh ill of his neighbour," &c. — "With whatsoever
measure ye mete," &c.

There remains one other class of vituperators, — a
very malignant class. I allude to certain members of
the medical profession who have descended to publicly
speak, write, and publish lying calumnies of mes-
merism and the whole class of mesmerists. Amongst
these stands prominently forward a member of the
London College of Physicians — (I in charity refrain
from giving his name) — who stated, when delivering
the Harveian Oration before and to an assemblage of
his colleagues, that : —

" The impostors called mesmerists were the especial favourites
" of those persons, both male and female, in whom the sexual
" passions burn strongly either in secret or notoriously. Decency
"forbids me to be more expliciV

I do not quote other assertions of a like character
made by medical practitioners, a specimen may be
enough, indeed is too much, were it not that such
lying calumnies do get circulated and may be believed
by decent though silly people. The evident object is
to frighten away all respectable fee-paying patients
from mesmerism and mesmerisers, under the pains and
penalties of being pointed at as persons particularly
addicted to licentious pleasures. Now be it observed

MESMERIC DANGERS. 137

that these assertions are not directed to one or two
mesmerists singled out from the body but are asserted
of the whole class. Who compose this class? these
calumniators very well know. Their professional
brothers, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, Engledue, Simp-
son of York, Storer of Bristol, and a host of other
men of undoubted character and reputation as phy-
sicians and surgeons, are avowed mesmerists. The
Archbishop of Dublin is a mesmeriser ; his lady and
daughters are kind-hearted, worthy and disinterested
mesmerisers — these ladies have performed one of the
most extraordinary cures of total blindness ever re-
corded as done by any human means or by any human
beings. Clergymen of the established church, eminent
and notorious for piety and their benevolent care of the
flocks entrusted to their charge, are avowed mesmerists.
Some of the most dignified and honourable of the
aristocracy, peers of the realm, are mesmerisers ; ladies
of the same class mesmerise and are mesmerised ;
barristers, lawyers, magistrates, country gentlemen,
dissenting clergymen, men eminent in literature, science,
and the arts are mesmerisers; and ladies, matrons and
unmarried, of all these classes, mesmerise or are mes-
merised. Ignorance cannot be urged in extenuation
of the gross, unmanly, ungentlemanlike, and lying
calumny asserted with respect to so large and respect-
able a portion of society — a calumny which, if possible
of proof, would render male mesmerists totally un-
worthy of rank or place in decent society, and reduce
female mesmerists to a station even more degraded
than that of the poor unfortunates driven by necessity
to walk the streets. I should be sorry to think that
the inventor and utterer of this calumny really believed
it, because it would lead us to suspect the propriety
and decency of his own imaginings ; men are considered
prone to suspect others of liking that which they like ;
and it would be unjust and a breach of charity to our
neighbour even to question the character and purity of

138 MESMERIC DANGERS.

his thoughts, unless upon undeniable evidence. I
would rather believe that the medical opposition and
hatred to mesmerism arises from vanity and self-love.
It is feared that if mesmerisers cannot be stayed in their
career of successfully and easily curing diseases, if
respectable patients cannot be frightened from applying
to them for aid, " Othello's occupation's gone," or may
at least become an unprofitable trade as to pecuniary
reward. Here is the TRUE SECRET of MEDICAL
HOSTILITY to mesmerism ; certain men have gone
too far in their hasty and ill-judged opposition — they
hate the idea of retracing their steps, acknowledging
their error, and becoming mesmerists — and they hate
the idea of suffering in their pockets ; so mesmerism
must be put down at all hazards. These opponents
are not honest opponents nor clean-minded opponents,
and may therefore be treated with contempt and silence
as far as mesmerisers are concerned, unless to protest
against and assert their calumnies to be gross lies,
that the weak minds disposed to believe them may
not understand that they cannot be or dare not be
denied or refuted.

Having endeavoured to meet the objections to mes-
merism which are urged on moral and religious
grounds, it only remains that I should caution learners
how to avoid doing the possible mischief which might
follow from an imprudent exercise of the power. They
should observe : —

Never to direct the influence entirely to the patient's
head, but to remove it from the head to the rest of the
person to equalise it ; and conclude the operation with
long passes.

. Never to allow the patient to be mesmerised by
another operator whilst under the influence of the first
operator ; that is, not to let him be influenced by two
or more persons at one time.

Remember that when you have succeeded in putting
your subject into any abnormal condition, you have

MESMERIC DANGERS. 139

taken upon yourself to be responsible for his safety and
comfort whilst in that condition. Never therefore
distress him by making idle and unnecessary experi-
ments or allow others to do so ; never leave him until
you have ascertained that he can bear your absence
without experiencing any discomfort ; never leave him
at all unless in the care of a trustworthy relative or
friend who has been made acquainted with the neces-
sary precautions to be observed for his safety. If you
must leave him awake him first, unless all that which
is necessary to his well-being in his mesmeric state can
certainly be observed.

Never allow any person to touch your patient or
even speak to him, unless you previously put the par-
ties into mesmeric communication. You may do this

by telling your patient that Mr. wishes to take

his hand or ask him a question and enquire if he has
any objection. If he assents take a hand of each party
in your own hands, hold them a few minutes and join
them. If the patient shudders on contact being made,
complains of cold, or shows symptoms of a hysterical
or convulsive character, immediately separate them ;
blow on his hands to blow off the strange influence,
and hold his hands in your own, remaining calm and
quiet, and in a whisper request your patient to be so.
Some patients in the sleep-waking state, and a few in
the mesmeric waking state, become so susceptible to
disturbance from the touch or approach of any person
but their mesmeriser, that great caution must be ob-
served in permitting it. I have known screams,
hysterical laughter, and convulsions caused in a lady
by the touch of her own sister, after she had been told
that her sister wished to and consented that she might
take her hand ; it caused me great trouble to quiet and
compose her afterwards. If anything unpleasant occurs
you must try to calm your patient without awakening
him ; if you cannot succeed after a fair trial you must
awaken and mesmerise again, and repeat this until you

140 MESMERIC DANGERS.

have succeeded in making him happy and comfortable.
Should the patient not assent to being touched it had
better not be attempted.

Never leave a patient in a distressed or disturbed
state, under an impression that he may become com-
fortable without your aid in a short time ; it is probable
that he will not if you do leave him and you risk his
becoming seriously injured.

Be very cautious how you excite the cerebral organs ;
phreno-mesmeric experiments are very interesting to
the beholders but not very profitable to the subjects,
unless used as a means of remedying cerebral disease.
Remember that the means used to cure a disease when
it really does exist may cause the disease where it has
not previously existed. The excitement of an organ,
if induced mesmerically, is best removed by breathing
over and then blowing on.

Experiments upon mesmerised subjects made to test
the effect of metals, or magnets, or chrystals, and
many other experiments may do mischief. The learner
should make himself thoroughly acquainted with the
effects of intended experiments upon others before he
tries them on his own subjects. If you mesmerise to
cure disease have nothing to do with experiments of
curiosity they do no good; they may do harm directly,
and certainly injure indirectly, by diverting your inten-
tion and influence from the useful purpose of curing.

Never leave a patient who may be only half awakened.
There is no danger in the mesmeric sleep, nor is there
any danger in the sleep-waking state whilst these states
persist in their perfect form; but when patients who
are very strongly under the influence are imperfectly
aroused they are neither in a mesmeric nor in a normal
condition, they are in a mixed state which may be one
of real danger. If the mesmeric state be sleep they
remain sleepy with a tendency to fall asleep ; I have
known cases of this happening in very unsuitable places
and circumstances. If the state be sleep-waking the

MESMERIC DANGERS. 141

patient requires more care to be taken in respect of
awakening him than when it is sleep. Patients in perfect
sleep-waking closely resemble waking persons, with
the exception of their eyes being shut ; when partially
aroused, the eyes may be open, and the patient see or
appear to see with them and yet be partly in the sleep-
waking condition. In this mixed state he has not the
faculties of perfect sleep-wakers, which serve all pur-
poses of use as well as the faculties of waking persons,
nor has he his customary faculties, he no longer judges
of things correctly. I have seen this state presented
decidedly as one of temporary insanity, and therefore
caution the learner especially to take care to prevent
it, by not considering the patient awake until his
memory and sight are in the natural condition and he
talks as reasonably as usual.

Never mesmerise a subject when you are angry or
excited, or low-spirited and fretting, you risk bringing
him into the same state ; and do not mesmerise if you
are suffering from any general bodily illness, or you
may communicate disease instead of health.

To prevent a very susceptible patient from being un-
consciously mesmerised or influenced by a stranger, the
accustomed mesmeriser may avail himself of a mesmeric
promise extracted from the subject, which often suc-
ceeds admirably, or he may will that the subject shall
not be impressed by any person excepting himself, and
take care to acquaint the subject that he is doing so ;
or mesmerise a gold locket, or gold ring, or some other
article with the same intention, to be worn next the
skin (I find gold succeed best), and order the patient
when in sleep-waking, and when awake, not to be sus-
ceptible to mesmeric influence from any one whilst the
article is worn. It may be necessary to keep up the
mesmerisation of the article from time to time as the
influence becomes exhausted, or it loses its protective
power. I have found this latter very effectual, so much
so that I could not mesmerise my own patient when

142 MESMERIC DANGERS.

protected by a mesmerised locket. Some patients if
sleep-wakers will indicate for themselves a method.
It is always desirable, when persons become very sensi-
tive, that the mesmeriser should discover a method of
protecting them from being mesmerised when not con-
senting to or conscious of the attempt, and such method
may usually be found. Persons whose susceptibility to
mesmerism is so extreme that it might be inconvenient
to them are generally sensitive enough to be influenced
by the preventive means which will afford a sufficient
protection.

( 143 )

CROSS MESMERISM

Is when a patient is placed under the influence of
two or more mesmerisers at the same time and from
their influences being of a dissimilar character, or the
action and intention of the mesmerisers being dissimilar,
dissimilar or opposing states are induced and the patient
becomes distressed thereby. The influences of two or
more mesmerisers is sometimes desirable and necessary,
as in cases of dangerous acute disease where uninter-
rupted mesmerisation must be continued for many
successive hours, before one operator is quite exhausted
another taking his place and thus mutually relieving
each other. Again, in cases of severe paralysis and
very great nervous exhaustion two or more mesmerisers
may be tried advantageously. The mesmerisers must
then act precisely by the same process and with the
same purpose; and if proper care be used and there
is nothing mutually repulsive in their respective in-
fluences, benefit instead of mischief may be obtained.
This is rather double mesmerising than cross mes-
merising. If the influences of two operators produce
dissimilar and opposing effects serious inconvenience
and mischief may be done to the subject.

It sometimes happens that the effect produced can
only be removed by the operator who has caused the
effect ; thus, if a patient be doubly mesmerised and each
operator is not careful to remove the whole effects of his
own influence the patient may appear to be unmes-
merised and yet be partly mesmerised, and be placed
in a situation already described as one of great danger.

When patients are in sleep-waking we must avoid
the risk of cross mesmerism by taking care that only
one mesmeriser subjects them to his influence; but

144 CROSS MESMERISM.

some are so highly sensitive in this state that the near
approach of a person or an unintentional touch may
produce disagreeable consequences. When this occurs
it is better that the original mesmeriser should awaken
the subject and then re-mesmerise him, than for the
second party to attempt to disperse the effects of his
contact or contiguity.

I have known double mesmerising often borne com-
fortably and advantageously by patients when adminis-
tered with proper caution, but undoubtedly serious
mischief has been done by its being heedlessly attempted
— patients becoming cross mesmerised ; therefore the
inexperienced mesmeriser should never allow another
operator to assist him by joining in his operation, or
permit any person to meddle with his patient whilst
under the influence. If the learner undertakes a case
in which additional mesmeric power seems to be neces-
sary, he should not have it applied until he has obtained
the assistance of an experienced practitioner, who is
thoroughly conversant with the proper application of
mesmerism, to direct him.

11;

ISOLATION.

A mesmerised subject may be wholly isolated, that
is, cut off apparently from any appeal to any of his
senses as in the deep sleep ; or he may be only partially
isolated. It is very curious to observe, as I have often
done, the different effects produced upon the same
sleep-wakers by different mesmerisers. Perhaps each
induces sleep-waking with equal facility, but under the
influence of one the patient exhibits no isolation ; he
hears every person in the room when they speak ; he
sees every article in the room ; he sees and knows
every person present. I have seen the same subject
awakened and presently put into sleep-waking by
another mesmeriser, and then be incapable of hearing
any voice but that of this mesmeriser and also incapable
of seeing any other person unless the mesmeriser ex-
pressed an urgent desire that he should do so. The
patient seemed so engrossed by the new mesmeriser
that he could not direct his attention to any other
person. Persons who pass into the sleep-waking state
characterised as ecstasy are in general perfectly isolated,
they seem entirely absorbed in contemplation or in-drawn
as it has been expressed ; they are quite indifferent to
all and every thing external to them, and if allowed to
remain long in the state may become so far isolated as
to be insensible to the means used to demesmerise and
the mesmeriser losing his power the patient must sleep
on until the effect passes away spontaneously. It is
not advisable to allow any patient to become so deeply
isolated as to be placed beyond the control of his mes-
meriser.

1 1(3

MESMEEIC DELIRIUM OR DREAM.

This is an imperfect sleep-waking state. The patient
has some of his faculties in perfect action and the
functions of some imperfectly exercised, and is thus
subject to all the mental incongruities which are pre-
sented in our natural dreams. He calls persons by
wrong names mistaking them for others, fancies him-
self in other places, and may be deceived in the identity
of all who surround him and in the reality of his present
circumstances, either by his own faculties or by sug-
gestions made by others. His conversation is all quite
rational and all his actions also, as far as they have
relation to his present ideal or delusive perceptions, but
of course irrational as to the absolute reality of his true
circumstances. We have presented to us an exact
picture or counterpart of many forms of insanity, and
one which the physician may contemplate with much
interest. He will see a case of mental functions thrown
out of balance by the influence of a few mesmeric passes ;
and the patient's mind restored into healthy equilibrium
again by making a few more passes. Here is matter
for very serious reflection. The influence of the passes
is too subtle to be detected ; we can only know it by
the effects produced. If such seemingly trifling and
inappreciable influence can produce such effects, may
not the influence which causes real insanity as a disease
be something as seemingly trifling and simple ; and if
we could only detect and command it, might we not
as easily then cure the insane as we can now restore
these mesmeric dreamers? The state now alluded to
is somewhat different from that produced by phreno-

MESMERIC DELIRIUM ui: DREAM. 147

mesmerism. By exciting an organ we produce an
uncontrollable impulse to do a certain action in accord-
ance with the cerebral function of the organ and induce
a state corresponding to mania or monomania, in which
the subject does not reason, or his reason is set at
nought by the impulse. In the mesmeric dream the
subject does reason, and reason coherently, but the
objects of perception presented to his reasoning faculty
are hallucinations ; the perceptive organs instead of
being unduly excited seem to be unduly depressed,
and wanting their healthy tone lead his reason astray
by presenting it with erroneous perceptions. This is a
state corresponding to many forms of insanity. If
we excite the cerebral organs of the sleep-waking
dreamer we then see the analogue of mental diseases,
where a sound reasoning faculty exists disturbed by
false perceptions, and combined with some mania or
uncontrollable desire to do certain actions.*

* How unfortunate it is that the able and influential mem-
bers of the medical profession do not set aside their prejudice
against mesmerism; would they only carefully examine the
mesmeriser's artificial and temporary pictures of insanity they
would no longer suppose that inflammation, or some structural
change in the substance of the brain must exist antecedent to
the development of insanity, and therefore no longer treat the
unfortunate patient for a disease which may have no existence.
Their cupping and blistering, and depletion and purgations,
would not take precedence of the more rational treatment pre-
sented by enjoining strict repose and a judicious employment
of purely moral remedies. I am quite aware that practitioners
who are perfectly acquainted with mental disease do not recom-
mend much physic or the remedies which may be called medical ;
but I am also aware that the general practitioners, who seldom
see cases of the sort, usually begin with this kind of mis-
chievous practice when entrusted with a case. When the brains
of deceased lunatics are examined, it seldom happens that the
anatomist can detect any lesion which will account for the
disease. If it does occasionally occur that some softening or
change is detected, the examiner then points to his discovery
as the cause of the disease, whilst it may be only an effect.
It is more than probable that the functional derangement really
precedes the structural change. The friends of a patient who

L 2

148 MESMERIC DELIRIUM OR DREAM.

For nearly a third part of my whole life my avoca-
tion has led me necessarily to the daily contemplation
of mental disease ; and my mesmeric experiences
having presented me with many artificially induced
states of very similar character, I am led to believe
that every form of mental disease may have its sem-
blance artificially produced in a highly sensitive subject,
without damage or detriment to the subject of the ex-
periment, by a well -instructed and expert mesmeriser.

The mesmeric delirium or dream is a mixed state
between the perfect sleep-waking and the deep sleep.
It is always wise to oppose its persistence as far as
possible by either deepening the state into sleep, or
bringing the patient into lucid sleep-waking by de-
mesmerising the head. I do not consider it a state so
advantageous for the subject as the state of sleep or
sleep-waking ; it may become dangerous, and the
operator should always strive therefore to terminate it.

presents symptoms of insanity should abstain from employing
their general practitioner in the case unless they know that
he has a large experience in such diseases ; they will do much
better to call in the aid of the physicians who attend to insanity
and nothing else, and then request that judicious moral means
be tried before any active medical treatment is used. They
will act more wisely still to call on the physician-mesmerist
for advice and aid, and instead of consigning their unfortunate
fellow-creature to a treatment which is only better than active
medical because it leaves nature unmolested to cure if she can,
obtain the application of mesmerism for a cure. Insanity is
quite curable and easily cured by mesmerism when of recent
accession ; long standing chronic cases will require time and
perseverance. In the government asylum in India, at Ber-
nampore, under the charge of Dr. Kean, mesmerism was tried
on the insane patients. Seventy-four patients being subjected
to mesmerism, and SIXTY-FOUR!!! of the SEVENTY-
FOUR discharged cured, some after only a few weeks' mes-
merisation. — Vide Zoist for January, 1850.

( 1« )

ON THE APPLICATION OF MESMERISM
TO DISEASE.

This chapter is intended principally for the non-
medical mesmeriser, or for domestic use.

The questions presented as most important for
guidance are, — " To what diseases is mesmerism appli-
cable ?" " Should medical treatment be used in con-
junction with mesmeric?" "How should mesmerism
be applied ?"

I know of no disease in which mesmerism may not be
applied with advantage; whether it should be alone
trusted to, or used as an accessory remedy, must be
determined by the circumstances of each individual case.

Diseases are either acute or they are chronic, and
are functional or structural. When disease first attacks
a patient it is considered acute. Acute diseases gene-
rally pass through certain phases in some determinate
time, and in that time either kill the patient, or the
patient throws off the disease, or the disease establishes
itself in the patient's system and becomes chronic.
Chronic disease may exist for many years, depriving a
patient of health and comfort, but not necessarily
endangering his existence.

In a case of severe acute disease which endangers
life, a non-medical mesmerist would incur a very serious
hazard in trusting the case to mesmerism alone, par-
ticularly if the patient has never been mesmerised, and
no decided mesmeric state, as sleep-waking or the deep
sleep, can be induced. He should never encounter the
responsibility of such a case, unless under the guidance
and with the full sanction of the regularly qualified

150 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASES

practitioner. Dangerous acute diseases often progress
to a fatal termination with such rapidity, that remedies
as dangerous nearly as the disease may be considered
necessary to give the patient a chance. "Whether dan-
gerous remedies should be employed or not, or whether
there are any safe and equally useful remedies is another
question which physicians may discuss. The patient
and his friends may try any medical treatment they
deem best ; but in every dangerous acute disease
medical aid should be obtained from some practitioner
of medicine. In such cases the mesmeriser who has
full faith in the efficacy of his power need not be idle ;
he may employ mesmerism as an accessory remedy.
It may save the patient's life and cannot under any
circumstances be injurious to him. The intention to
mesmerise the patient should be communicated to the
medical attendant ; if he be a liberal-minded and
unprejudiced man he will not object, provided his
patient desires it; if he has no faith in the utility of
mesmerism he need have no scruples on the ground of
a mischievous operation ; if he thinks there is no mes-
meric influence he cannot fear its effects — that which
does not exist can do no harm. The advocates of mes-
merism owe a duty to it and to themselves. Should
the chosen medical attendant declare that he will not
permit any mesmerising, that he will abandon the case
should it be attempted, the patient is not to lose his
chance of benefit to gratify any such prejudice. Let the
patient and his friends at once dismiss the scrupulous
gentleman and call in one who knows the utility of
mesmeric treatment, or one who is willing to learn by
watching in an impartial spirit for its effects. Medical
practitioners, seeking to increase their practice, are
so plentifully supplied everywhere that there never need
be a serious difficulty in securing a suitable one. The
advice which I give is recommended from motives of
prudence. It is not that I doubt the efficacy of mes-
merism alone, even in the most dangerous acute diseases,

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 1 ,*) 1

if it acts ; but we must not forget that in order that the
mesmeric power be fully effective it is needful that the
patient be fully susceptible of the influence. The action
of disease on the system may prevent the action of the
mesmeric power ; unless we can see well-marked and
positive mesmeric effects produced we cannot be sure
that the mesmerism does act ; and should it not act,
what then are we trusting to, if we trust to it alone? I
believe that the mesmeric power is a specific cure in
every disease (not requiring surgical aid), but I do not
believe it is the only curative means, therefore in a case
where the existence of life is hazarded it is advisable
that other means be employed in conjunction with mes-
merism. I have combated dangerous acute diseases by
mesmerism alone and combated successfully, curing the
sufferers with marvellous rapidity, but I had a great
advantage in my favour, the patients had been often
mesmerised previously and were perfectly susceptible
to my influence ; I knew the patients and their previous
health, and understanding their diseases could ascertain
if they declined or increased. Whilst I saw the
symptoms of the disease afford evidence that it was
abating I was safe in trusting to mesmerism ; had they
progressed unfavourably I would at once have met
them by other means of cure.

When it happens that in a case of dangerous acute
disease the patient can be placed in the deep unconscious
mesmeric sleep, and kept in this state, and surgical
assistance is not called for, I do believe that mesmerism
alone will cure that patient if he is to be cured at all,
and cure him more safely and certainly without drugs
than if drugs be administered. The exception admis-
sible in favour of drugs would be if the stomach and
intestinal canal were over loaded and required relief;
an aperient might perhaps be administered to com-
mence with, and on the cessation of its effects the sleep
be induced and be kept persistent, occasional dozes of
mesmerism being administered during the sleep. This

152 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

opinion is entertained by the majority of medical men
who practise mesmerism and is fortified by their
experience. Many of them would not even allow the
aperient, insisting that the natural powers, invigorated
by the mesmeric influence, will be found sufficient for
all which is essential to the patient's safety. During
this sleep I have known a highly-accelerated pulse be
speedily reduced to the healthy standard; a small
and slow pulsation become rapidly accelerated and
strengthened ; a hot dry skin with cold extremities
be speedily exchanged for perspiration and warm
extremities; suppressed secretions be no longer sup-
pressed ; and all requisite relief to the system be
obtained for the patient, when awakened, through the
natural excretions, without the use of any drugs.
Patients have been seriously ill, slept for a few hours,
and awoke well, and nothing but mesmeric sleep has
been tried. I do believe that during the last visitation
of cholera, if mesmerism could have been fairly and
fully tried, hundreds or even thousands of lives would
have been saved. I never had an opportunity of trying
mesmerism in a positive case of Asiatic cholera, but I
tried it towards the end of last summer in an aggravated
case of diarrhoea which occurred to one of my own
family, with marked success. The sufferer was the
girl Eliza Fletcher, already mentioned as being par-
ticularly sensitive to mesmeric influence. She was
awakened about four o'clock one morning by violent
cramps and spasms in her stomach or bowels, with
constant retching and defecation. I heard of her illness
about nine and not having time to try mesmerism gave
her a dose of calomel and opium. At twelve I under-
stood that she had been sick as soon as she swallowed
my powder (which was probably wasted) and was now
worse. I saw her ; she seemed quite prostrated ; was
in agony, writhing about with pain ; was shivering
with cold ; feet and hands cold ; still frequently retching
a little water and froth; with defecation of a thin watery

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 103

fluid every ten or fifteen minutes. I ordered her to bed
and promised to come and mesmerise her as soon as I
possibly could ; I had no kind of doubt about curing
her. At three in the afternoon I found her lying upon
chairs before the kitchen fire. On enquiring why she
was not in bed as ordered, she said she was so cold
she could not stop in it, and was so weak she could not
sit up. The retching had rather abated, the action of
the bowels continued, and the pains or spasms had
much increased. Had this case occurred a month or
two later in the season the cholera doctors would have
set it down as a case of true cholera. I am content to
call it diarrhoea although I believe that it was the
first stage of true cholera. At three o'clock I sent her
to bed and mesmerised her with all the energy I pos-
sessed. I commenced by placing a handkerchief over
the seat of her spasms, breathed strongly there, and
next made passes for twenty minutes until all pain was
gone ; then made passes over her legs and feet and
arms and hands until they felt warm, both to herself
and to my touch ; and concluded by long passes from
head to feet. I desired her to stay where she was until
my return home and ordered her a little hot brandy and
water to be taken immediately. I returned about six
o'clock ; she had been quite well since I left her but
was as I expected still in the sleep-waking. The
previous state of the bowels had not been at all inclined
to trouble her ; she was warm — she said " very hot" —
and had experienced no pain since being mesmerised,
but was hungry and wanted to get up and take her tea.
I desired her to do so and come to me to be awakened
afterwards. She said she could not get up or move ;
she had been trying. I found that my long passes had
paralysed her power of motion, although not made
with such intention, and therefore had to demesmerise
the limbs and awaken her. She was then quite well,
and did not experience the slightest return of the
disorder. Now what cured her? Either the opium

154 APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

and calomel, which had produced no effect from nine,
a.m. till three, p.m., and was probably ejected by the
retching ; or the mesmerism ; or about an ounce of
brandy with a little hot water. If the drugs, then they
should have shown their action earlier; so the mes-
merism and brandy must settle the case betwixt them,
unless nature stept in (as the sceptics say she always
does) just at the moment when mesmerism was tried.
Well, I suppose the sceptics are right after all. Nature
does step in to aid the mesmeriser — but how? Nature
acting in him throws natural healthy energy into the
patient, and nature acting in the patient, being reinforced
by a natural ally, fights so successfully that the enemy
of nature — disease — is killed, or finds his safety in a
precipitate flight. This is the true secret of a mesmeric
cure and the " effort of nature" which accompanies it.

There are acute diseases incidental to children and
adults in which a healthy parent or friend may mes-
merise successfully at once, before claiming medical
aid ; it will be always quite right and safe when indis-
position is observed to try it at once ; but if the sufferer
becomes seriously ill notwithstanding, it will then be
proper to send for the doctor. In all such cases when
mesmerism is tried the intention and effort should be
to soothe the sufferer, remove his sufferings, and induce
sleep. Every idle experiment must be positively
interdicted.

In chronic diseases it may be presumed, as a general
rule, that the doctor has tried his means of cure un-
successfully, and unless the case be one presenting a
danger or probability of a speedy and fatal termination,
active medical treatment may be judiciously dispensed
with during the mesmeric treatment. It may be dis-
pensed with because active treatment will produce
constitutional disturbance prejudicial to the effects of
mesmeric influence ; it is sending an ally to the assist-
ance of nature who may not act in harmony with her
own plan of operations, or in concert with her mes-

APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 155

meric ally, and who will therefore be a very dangerous
ally in the camp, causing a division in favour of the
enemy. It does not follow that if medical treatment
is dispensed with the visits of the medical attendant
must be dispensed with. If the practitioner understands
mesmerism he will probably direct the mesmeriser, or
assist in the treatment himself; if he does not under-
stand it, but is honest and unprejudiced, he will be
glad to attend and mark progress and put the non-
medical mesmeriser on his guard if any dangerous
symptoms are presented. If the doctor be prejudiced
against mesmerism he must be positively excluded
from visits even of friendship, or any meddling of any
kind whatsoever with the patient during the treatment ;
he can do no manner of good, and will hardly fail to do
harm by creating difficulties and throwing doubt and
discouragement about patient and mesmeriser. No
prudent mesmeriser, whether medical or non-medical,
whether operating gratuitously or receiving fees for
operating, should undertake a chronic case requiring
long and persevering treatment, unless he be gua-
ranteed against all hostile medical interference, either
direct or indirect and unintentional.

It often happens in treating cases of disease that the
mesmeric power acts as homoeopathic medicines act,
causing symptoms analogous to those produced by the
disease ; thus the real symptoms appear worse or become
aggravated. If this aggravation is a mesmeric effect
it is an advantageous action ; it will abate and the real
symptoms of the disease abate with it ; but should the
patient be not fully assured of this effect being advan-
tageous he may easily be persuaded by his old medical
attendant that the mesmerism is really injuring him,
and discontinue it just at the time when it is curing.
The interference and ignorant advice and opinions of
non-medical friends have the same prejudicial effect
upon the patient ; he becomes fearful and fidgetty and
tries to oppose any extraordinary effects which the

156 APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

influence is inclined to produce, instead of passively
giving way to them, and thus materially retards his
own cure. It is a happy event when doctor and patient
and friends are all concurrent in the propriety of mes-
meric treatment, are anxious and hopeful for its success,
and have the assistance of a competent mesmeriser, in
whose experience and judgment they can place con-
fidence. When it is otherwise mesmeric treatment may
fail with the most promising patient. Many a case
affording evidence of a satisfactory cure being probable
and not remote, has been ultimately marred by the mis-
chievous meddling of silly relatives and friends. The
mesmeriser, forewarned, must therefore feel it a duty to
himself and to the patient whose case he would under-
take to provide against it, and obtain a pledge of
honour from all parties concerned which shall guarantee
him from mischievous meddling being attempted.

When mesmerism is tried to cure a chronic disease,
it is quite impossible to say how long a time it will be
necessary to persevere with the treatment before a cure
must be expected. When chronic diseases are only
functional they are often cured with a rapidity truly
surprising ; but functional disease, when it has per-
sisted for some time, may cause an alteration in the
texture or tissue of organs, or in the constitution of
the blood, or condition of the nerves, and the original
disease of function becomes complicated with a disease
of structure. If this has occurred it would be absurd
and opposed to the dictates of common sense to expect
a speedy cure of it — mesmerism does not work miracles.
That the mesmeric power is equal to the cure of a dis-
ease of structure has been often enough proved ; but a
structural change is not instantly effected (unless by
an accident), it is the result of a cause which has been
operating for some considerable period of time — a con-
siderable period of time must therefore elapse before
it can be repaired and the diseased part restored to its
naturally healthy state. Structural changes are often

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 157

detected by the examination of an expert physician or
surgeon, but may exist when no examination of the
living subject can detect their existence; or may be too
delicate and minute for detection on any examination
after decease. If no structural change whatsoever has
taken place a functional disease of long persistence may
be like any long-established habit, very hard to get rid
of in a short time, although perfectly curable if patience
and perseverance are exercised. There are also so many
unforeseen and unknown circumstances incidental to a
case of chronic disease during its treatment, that it is
altogether impossible for the most skilful physician,
even when well acquainted with mesmerism, to under-
take a prediction as to the time which will be consumed
before a mesmeric cure can be accomplished. This
difficulty is not peculiar to mesmeric treatment ; the
prediction of a cure in chronic disease as to time, must
necessarily be as difficult or impossible if any other
treatment or method of cure be adopted. A physician
or surgeon may safely venture to assure a patient that
he will either cure or kill him in three months ; but to
promise a cure unconditionally in a specified time can
scarcely be honest because it is not possible.*

A disadvantageous circumstance connected with the
mesmeric treatment of disease is, that frequently weeks
and sometimes months will elapse before the patient
experiences any decided improvement in the particular
effects or symptoms of his disease. This does not
discourage the experienced mesmeriser but it does the
inexperienced patient. It is not always thus, nor
generally thus ; diseases frequently show symptoms of
improvement on the first mesmeric operation and the

* The wise method of closing with such promises is for the
patient to add the condition that no pecuniary compensation
is to be paid unless the cure be completed in the specified time;
this will test the honest belief of the promiser, whether he
be routine physician, surgeon, or mesmeriser, and save the
patient's purse if the promised cure be not obtained.

158 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

improvement steadily progresses ; but if otherwise the
mesmeriser may know that the case is still progressing
to a cure. He may see an improvement in the general
health of the patient, — he eats a little better, or sleeps
a little better, or looks a little better; but the poor
sufferer troubled by present distress cannot believe
himself mending whilst his distressing symptoms
remain unabated. Here the routine medical treatment
often has a present advantage over the mesmeric. The
routine treatment is directed to the palpable evidence
or effects of disease ; mesmerism attacks the hidden
and primary cause of it. The one is a system of
treating effects the other directs itself to the causes of
effects. As examples of my meaning, there may be
want of functional power in the stomach, and the
patient be afflicted with dyspepsia and indigestion ;
there may be a torpid inactive liver ; there may be
constipated bowels ; and these diseased states be
caused by a primary disease not situated in the
stomach, or liver, or bowels. The organs may be all
healthy as to their structural character, but are
deprived of that peculiar power or force on which the
due performance of their function depends. This
force is undoubtedly generated in the brain, and con-
veyed to the organs by their nerves. If the brain
does not generate a sufficient supply of this peculiar
force, or the nerves become unable to convey it, the
organ suffers, but the fault is not in the organ ; the
primary disease, or cause of disease, is elsewhere.
Spinal irritation, or some affection of the spine, is
often the true cause of many diseases where the spine
is not suspected of being concerned. If a functional
disease of the liver, or stomach, or bowels, is treated
according to routine medical practice, how is it gene-
rally treated? Mercurials are given to act on the
liver; tonics for the stomach; purgatives for the
bowels. These remedies are directed to effects, not to
the primary cause ; they compel the complaining organ

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 1 ~>y

to exert more power and do its work — just as whip
and spur compel a tired horse to put forth his remaining
energies — but they only remedy the evil temporarily ;
when their action ceases the organ is more tired and
worse than before. The remedies must be repeated
again and again and in increased doses, or with in-
creased power, or they will not produce the desired
effect. If the primary disease is of a persistent cha-
racter, these remedies do — and must eventually — lose
their present efficacy ; the nervous energy required to
assist their action is taken from other organs which
thus lose their proper supply, the patient becomes
worse instead of better, the system is weakened, other
organs become affected, and the general health suffers.
When functional derangement is the result of some
cause of a temporary character the remedy applied to
the organ itself may be serviceable ; it is the whip
which compels the horse to trot up the last hill, or
finish the last mile of his journey ; but the whip never
gives the animal any real strength. You cannot feed
your horse with whip, or rest him with whip ; you may
get him to his stable by the use of whip when he can
and won't work, but if the journey be very long and
the hills very steep whip will not carry him to the end
of it. He works as long as he is able, then fails, and is
farther from reaching the stable than before. This is like
the medical method of treating the effects of disease ; at
first it promises much; the physic acts and the patient is
satisfied ; the inconvenience from which he suffers is
temporarily remedied ; it is only on the recurrence of
his inconvenience, and the remedy losing its power of
relief, that he begins to suspect that it has not really
cured him. The action of mesmerism is quite different.
When a patient is placed under the general influence
of mesmerism its effort and action seems to be to restore
the harmony or equilibrium of nervous force which is
deranged ; where disease as to cause most exists, there
does the mesmeric force determine. The mesmeric

160 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

cure is a radical cure but it does not always present
immediate evidence of curing, as its action is on
primary diseases or causes instead of secondary diseases
or effects. Mesmerism cures causes and then effects
cease being deprived of their cause. Routine treat-
ment cures effects which return again if the cause is
remaining. Whether my solution be true or untrue
as to the reason, the fact remains that mesmerism may
be applied for many weeks by a proper and efficient
mesmeriser before the most evident symptoms of a
disease cease to disturb or distress the patient, and
then these very effects will almost suddenly be miti-
gated and the disease be cured. Indeed it often
happens that a case remaining uncured after being
mesmerised for some time will progress to a cure after
the mesmerism has been discontinued, even although no
other remedy be tried. I have had several instances
where this has occurred in my own practice.

Certain diseases seem caused by the presence in the
system of some morbid product which acts as a poison,
deranging the functions or ultimately the structure of
organs, and producing specific effects, as inflammation,
fever, &c. Cancer, scrofula, gout, and small-pox are
of this class, which includes many other diseases. The
learner may ask will mesmerism cure these diseases ?
It will or may, undoubtedly, by invigorating and
supporting the vital powers of the system and thus
helping nature to accomplish that which she ever seeks
to do — namely, to throw out of the system every thing
detrimental to health and life. Nature does this spon-
taneously in numerous cases when no extraneous
assistance of any kind is rendered. Mesmerism is a
powerful ally aiding the natural method of cure ; and
diseases which can be cured naturally without assist-
ance, may all be cured, and are likely to be cured by a
proper application of mesmerism.

In diseases of this kind are drags or chemicals
admissible in conjunction with mesmerism ? The

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 161

answer must depend upon the nature of the proposed
remedies and the mode of application. If a morbid or
poisonous secretion is positively known to exist in the
stomach or bowels by all means eject it at once by
emetic or purgative if possible ; if it be in the blood,
and the physician does know its exact character and
also a re-agent which will enter the blood and neu-
tralise it by forming an inert or harmless compound,
by all means let him apply it. Whether the specific
character or composition of morbid products in the
living system producing specific diseases and the
remedies which will neutralise such are yet known,
is another question which physicians may settle ; few
will venture to decide this in the affirmative, — and
until this be attained the whole system (unless the
homoeopathic system be an exception) of administering
drugs is necessarily A SYSTEM OF EXPERI-
MENTS. It has already been said that all useless
or mischievous experiments are to be positively inter-
dicted in a mesmeric treatment; whether the exhibition
of drugs falls within this interdiction must therefore
depend on whether they will prove useful or useless in
the case ; it is the province of the accomplished physi-
cian to determine this question ; but the only physician
sufficiently accomplished is the one who truly under-
stands the value and efficacy of his drug remedies and
also the value and efficacy of the mesmeric remedy.
Such a physician is the very man who should be called
in to advise and direct the non-medical mesmeriser and
no other should be consulted by the believers in and
advocates of mesmerism.*

* The number of persons who fully believe in the reality and
utility of mesmerism is exceedingly large ; they are far more
numerous than our opponent unbelievers imagine ; but the ma-
jority are, unfortunately for the cause, a timid and retiring
class. They patronise mesmerism secretly ; they are afraid of
incurring ridicule by coming boldly forward and avowing and
acting on their conviction. Would they only pluck up courage
and refuse to employ any medical man who is ignorant of mes-

M

162 APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

The customary mode of applying mesmerism to the
cure of disease is not a matter requiring any very extra-
ordinary instructions. The mesmeriser must in all
diseases which produce general disturbance of the
system endeavour to get his patient subjected to the
general influence of mesmerism. He must commence
his treatment by trying to put his subject into the deep
sleep by using the processes already detailed, and he
should persevere day after day in his endeavours. He
may mesmerise once a day or several times daily if
he conveniently can. If he mesmerises once or twice
each day the operation should always be repeated at
the same hours, or as nearly so as possible.

The times of operating must be determined by the
consent and mutual convenience of the parties ; I am
not aware that it makes any difference in the majority
of cases at what hour the patient is mesmerised.

Do not mesmerise when your stomach is hungry,
nor directly after taking a full meal. In one case you
will not have strength to spare, in the other you will
be depriving your stomach of the energy it requires for
digestion.

Do not mesmerise your patient when he is hungry,
particularly in early experiments. Hunger is a powerful
antidote to sleep and all placid sleepy states. I do not
object to mesmerise a patient who has just taken his
dinner ; I never saw it injure. People can digest as
easily when asleep as waking. Mesmerism accelerates
digestion ; I have known patients actually awake from
sleep when they became very hungry ; the claims of
the stomach were too strong for the repose of the brain.
Mesmerism almost invariably is found to increase the
appetite and digestive powers.

meric treatment, the medical class would speedily become
converted. As a body, they are just as much traders for the
sake of getting money as any traders in society, and their
hostility would be relinquished when found really detrimental
to their pecuniary interests.'

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM To DISEASE. 163

If the mesmeriser must drink whilst operating his
beverage should be cold water only. No wine or
stimulants are allowable at the time. This is a positive
and imperative rule. After he has finished his work
a glass of good wine or sound home-brewed ale may
do him good and cannot injure the patient, that is, if
he is exhausted and requires it. A mesmeriser should
take generous diet and sleep soundly at night, or he
will neither mesmerise many patients nor mesmerise
frequently without injuring himself.

The time which should be spent during each operation
must depend upon the strength of the mesmeriser, the
exhausting effect induced by the recipient, and the
comforting or beneficial period during which the patient
can bear the influence to be given to him. Asa general
rule the mesmeriser must cease to mesmerise as soon
as he feels physical fatigue, or finds it no longer possible
to keep his mind concentrated upon his patient and
work. When his mind wanders and thoughts of other
matters will intrude it is time to desist. He must
always remember that his own state, both mental and
physical, is more or less impressed by sympathy on
the patient. When he is angry or agitated the patient
will not be calmed. When he feels tired the patient
can hardly be strengthened.

It is necessary on commencing a case that a con-
siderable time be spent to subdue the patient. I have
often mesmerised for an hour and a half without any
interval of rest ; strong effects were visible earlier but
a decided state only obtained during the last half hour.
This time is far too long for operating actively during
subsequent sittings after a mesmeric state is established.
Half an hour is quite long enough for an average
mesmerising (the process or passes being actively
maintained) when performed by average mesmerisers.
It is much better that the patient be mesmerised twice
per diem for half an hour each time, than once only for
a whole hour. Many of our best mesmerisers limit

m 2

164 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

their time to fifteen or twenty minutes ; and this time
from a powerful and experienced operator will suffice
to produce more effect than hours spent by an inefficient
operator in the attempt.

Some persons are much more exhausting subjects
than others. I have felt more strength taken from me
by a delicate emaciated subject in twenty minutes than
by others in an hour.

When spasms, violent pains, convulsions, or fits
attack the patient during the operation, the mesmeriser
must try to subdue the attacks and leave the patient
comfortable before he desists. This may task his whole
energy for two or even three hours and the work then
becomes prodigiously hard work. These are unfrequent
and extreme cases, and a draught of ale or glass of
wine might then be allowed the operator, provided cold
water is not sufficient ; the latter has always served me
very well but that is not a reason why it should be
sufficient for every one else. Mesmerisers who possess
strong mental power will always get enough stimulus
from their own brains, persons who are deficient in
this power may require the artificial stimulant in an
extreme case of long-continued work, these persons may
make good mesmerisers but they are not enduring ones.

With some patients it will be found that a limited
amount of mesmerism is comfortably and pleasantly
endured; after a time they become over-heated or
agitated, or convulsed with nervous twitches : then
desist — they have had sufficient for that operation.

When patients complain of a headache being pro-
duced, demesmerise the head and mesmerise the legs
and feet by drawing-off or negative passes ; you will
soon relieve the head by this method. If on the next
occasion the headache comes again let the head alone,
— it is no business of yours to make the patient's head
ache ; mesmerise the trunk and limbs only. If mes-
merising the limbs causes headache that is your fault,
— you are mesmerising with too much energy; re-

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 165

move to a distance, act quietly, employ the negative
method, and you will not produce this effect. A sense
of weight on the head and over the eyes is not a pain
in the head. If the patient only complains of a sense
of weight on the head and pressure on the eyelids go
on you will put him to sleep. When he sleeps, leave
him to sleep the weight off again; or if he awakes
with it, remove it by demesmerising his head and
drawing it down to the feet.

As a general rule when a patient has been mes-
merised, before you leave him he will require to be
demesmerised should he complain of being drowsy, or
powerless and weak, or of any other unpleasant symptom
which has been caused by the mesmerism. If he sleeps
and awakes spontaneously and feels quite comfortable
there is no necessity to demesmerise him.

When your patient sleeps on being mesmerised there
is no need to continue making passes all the time
whilst he sleeps. Mesmerise him for a quarter or half
of an hour, then leave him alone to sleep away the
effects, always taking care to ascertain that he can bear
your absence and that nothing disturbs him. Do not
ask his permission to go away but go silently, leaving
a friend to watch how the patient bears your absence ;
do not leave the house until your friend informs you
that the patient has never moved or been disturbed,
or seemed to miss you. If you ask your patient to
let you leave him he may say, " Do not go, I could
not be happy if you did ;" and distress himself at your
absence if you do not comply with his request to stay ;
whereas if you steal away quietly he may not know
that you are absent, unless mesmeric attraction exist,
in which case you should remain with him. The
learner must not mistake a mere capriee or whim of
the subject for a development of this kind of attraction.
Go away quietly and he may not miss you, but if the
attraction exists he certainly will, go as softly as you
may.

166 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

The passes may be made at a distance of an inch
from the person of the subject, or from that to three or
four feet. I think the nearer the passes the stronger
the effect ; but you will sometimes more surely accomr
plish a desired purpose by persevering with the weaker
effort, or acting at a moderate distance.

There are many diseases, as neuralgia or rheumatism
of the nerves, tic-doloreux an acutely painful nervous
affection, various rheumatic and gouty pains, nervous
and convulsive paroxysms, fits, spasmodic attacks of
asthma, headache, and other afflicting symptoms of
disease needless to be enumerated, which have regular
periods of accession and remission ; they attack the
sufferer at or about a certain time, last so long, and
then remit until the return of that hour or some other
regular period. The mesmeriser when treating any of
these affections should carefully ascertain the hour of
accession and mesmerise shortly before it. Experience
has taught me the value of this plan. You may mes-
merise day after day in some severe case during the
attack with very little effect. Mesmerise the patient
when easy, and the pain nevertheless returns next day
at its accustomed period, although you may be perse-
vering with your attendance. Commence mesmerising
just before (as a quarter of an hour) and continue
during the period of accession, it is likely that it may
come but in a mitigated form, and in another trial or
two be beaten away altogether.

When patients are suffering from pains or spasms
and mesmerism is tried, it is very common for the
pains to quit the original locality under the influence
of the passes and follow the direction of the hand.
In such a case it is a safe rule always to try and bring
the pain out by the extremities, or from centre to
circumference, and remove it as far as possible from
the head and heart. The pain may sometimes fix
in an extremity and require many operations before it
can be altogether removed. A man may not like a

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 167

neuralgic or any other pain in his knee but he is
better with it there than in his head ; a man may not
like the gout in his toe but he may bear it with
patience and even be merry under his affliction, — let
him get it in his stomach and patience or merriment
are hardly possible. I have designedly brought a
toothache into the sufferer's elbow and left it there
for twenty-four hours before I chose to remove it
altogether.

Some of the older mesmerisers recommended that
mesmerism should always be discontinued during a
particular period incidental to the female economy; I
am not aware that modern mesmerisers attach any
importance to this recommendation. However, female
patients who are sleep-wakers and directing for them-
selves, frequently desire that the mesmerism be omitted
during their period. The operation of a powerful male
mesmeriser usually accelerates the appearance of the
catamenia ; but I have in many instances known the
same mesmeriser suddenly cause a cessation if he
mesmerise during the period, whilst the same patients
have not experienced this effect from a female operator.
Again, other patients will bear the influence of a male
operator during the whole period, without any incon-
venience being experienced. Hence it appears that
there is not any general rule, the circumstances of each
case must guide the treatment ; but it is a matter of
importance that certain precautions be observed when
a lady mesmerises a lady regularly. Some suffer much
from pains in the head, back, and lower abdomen at
such times, and if this be the case with the mesmeriser
the patient is not unlikely to participate in the suffering.
Again, the general state of one is impressed sympa-
thetically upon the other, and therefore the mesmerism
must be intermitted under certain circumstances con-
nected with these periods, or a gentleman or some
other lady must go on with the cure for a few days.
If the periods of both parties coincide, and either of

168 APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

the parties have menorrhagia, the lady mesmeriser
should not operate until the circumstances have passed.
Again, should the patient's period cease just as the
mesmeriser's commences, the mesmeriser should be
changed. In many cases where this happens, it will
be found that the patient' 8 period will return and continue
until the mesmeriser1 s ceasee* This effect will be
exceedingly debilitating to the patient, hence the
necessity of providing against it.

We may assume as an hypothesis, that when we
mesmerise we impart some of our own healthy nervous
or vital influence to our patient and displace or drive
out of him some of his own unhealthy influence, and
that we must not leave this unhealthy influence as an
external atmosphere about and without him, lest his
system attract it again ; we must therefore draw it
quite away from him, throw it away, and disperse it.
We cannot establish this hypothesis. It may or it
may not be true ; but it is always prudent to conduct
ourselves as if it were the fact. When acting to remove
this supposed bad influence from our patient we must
be careful to throw it from us, and not to throw it upon
any other person ; if this precaution is not observed we
may contract or give to another person very unpleasant
and striking symptoms of the patient's disease. I have
very frequently taken, unintentionally, the symptoms
or pains which I have removed from a patient ; they
did not remain long because I suppose my system was
not predisposed to them — my own vitality threw the
diseased influence off again ; but I have known this
kind of influence remain with others. As examples of
this fact I will adduce an instance or two from my
own experience.

I one evening called upon a worthy old farmer,

* This has been constant and invariable as far as my
experience goes. I also had a patient in whom this occurred at
any and every time whensoever any female operator mes^
merised her.

AMPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 169

who was seated beside his fire conning over the news-
paper ; his niece was sitting opposite to him applying
a smelling-bottle to her nostrils, and complaining of
severe headache. I at once offered my services to
relieve her from her malady which were accepted. I
placed her in a chair in the middle of the room that I
might have space to separate my hands and throw off
the pain, stood behind her and drew my hands from
her head right and left. In a few minutes she said the
pain seemed to be leaving her. I requested her to be
silent and continued my work. Presently the farmer
exclaimed, " Halloo I neighbour, what are you doing ?
I have got a headache come ; and have not had one
for this thirty years before." He was seated in a
position directly in a line with my right hand when
thrown off. I smiled, went to him, demesmerised his
head and removed the headache, then altered my
patient's chair, and cured her without causing her
uncle any more inconvenience. He was not a fanciful
hysterical girl, but a sturdy farmer upwards of seventy,
and one rather disposed to laugh at "any such mesmeric
fancy as this." One instance proves nothing; I will
add others. A lady one day requested me to come
and cure her son-in-law's nurse-maid of tic-doloreux.
The poor girl had been subject to it for several years,
had taken medicine, had applications to the teeth, and
been salivated until she had not a sound tooth left in
her jaws. She had been tormented by this attack for
a fortnight, and been under the care of two medical
men, one of whom had scarified her gums pretty freely
(not knowing how to relieve her), but all without any
advantage gained. The lady, who is an intimate friend
of mine, had declared that she believed I could cure
the girl ; and when the latter became so tired of suf-
fering that she talked of throwing herself out of the
window to obtain a final cure, her master sent her to
the lady's house with a message "That if her wonderful
friend could cure the girl he was to do it and the girl

170 APPLICATION OF MESMEPvISM TO DISEASE.

was not to return until she was cured." I mesmerised
her the first time on a Friday evening and sent her
back cured on the following Sunday morning ; but it
certainly was not an easy case, although three mes-
merisations cured it. During the first operation, at the
expiration of half an hour, the pain which had been
most acute suddenly ceased and the right side of the
face and gums rapidly swelled. The tumefaction con:
tinued increasing until the middle of the night, when
the tumor spontaneously opened and discharged nearly
a pint of clear fluid, which deposited a considerable
white coagulum on standing a few hours. I do not
know if this patient's tic has ever returned, it had not
done so several months afterwards. The first time I
mesmerised this patient, the lady in whose house she
was, felt curious to see the method of treating the case
and seated herself in a chair placed nearly behind me ;
consequently, as I drew my hands over the patient and
threw off the influence it was directed upon the lady.
When I had finished she complained of having the
face-ache, a pain she had never been subject to; it
attacked her whilst I was mesmerising Harriet, and
remained troubling her for several days, until I proposed
to mesmerise this new sufferer, and cured her by the
operation. On two subsequent occasions this lady was
present, hovering about me whilst I cured a member
of her family of tooth or face-ache, and on each occasion
she took it, and kept it until relieved by being mes-
merised, though never troubled with it at any other
time. I have had many analogous cases. When I
resided in the country I had an attached but humble
companion (now deceased) a spaniel dog, who was
often present when I mesmerised John Burton, a poor
labouring man whom I cured of most excruciating
pains in the head, probably neuralgic. This poor man
always made me feel ill whilst I mesmerised him, and
caused me slight pains and an exceedingly distressing
sensation in my own head, which lasted the remainder

APPLICATION 01* MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 171

of the day. When I have felt myself charged, or
seemingly charged with his diseased influence, I have
tried to rid myself of it by mesmerising the dog. In
every instance (twenty at least) when I did this the
dog was ill for a day or two afterwards. He was often
received as a parlour guest, and the matron of the
establishment, who frequently joined me at breakfast,
petted him. Next morning after he had received one
of these doses she never failed to notice that he was
ill, — " Mr. Barth, that poor dog is not well, you should
give him some medicine." I would reply, " Cut the
meat off that chop, madam, and give him the bone ;
that is the proper medicine for a dog." When the
bone was proffered he would smell it, and sneak away
and lie down in a corner ; neither meat nor milk would
tempt him ; he would only drink water. The cook
would address me with " Poor Toby can't cat his
dinner, sir." If I took up my gun and invited Toby
to accompany me, he frisked about and followed a little
way ; by the time we were half over the first field he
dropped his head and tail and went home. I could not
induce him to follow me; the poor dog was ill, and
showed it as plainly as a human being could have done.
A sick dog is not a subject Avorthy of a place in a book,
but a dog made sick by being mesmerised after a sick
man is a subject quite deserving notice by any medical
philosopher. I mesmerised this dog many times when
I was not charged with diseased influence, and never
saw him made either worse or better by it, but when-
ever I mesmerised him after Burton he was ill ; the
mesmerising and his illness certainly appeared to follow
strictly as cause and effect. I have seen epileptic dogs,
but I have yet to learn that dogs can be affected, as
medical sceptics say hysterical girls are, merely by the
force of imagination. To these remarks I may append
useful advice to the inexperienced mesmeriser. He
should not after mesmerising a sick person immediately
commence operating on another; he should wait awhile,

172 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

go out into the fresh air, and carefully wash his hands
and face previously, that he may rid himself of any
diseased influence.

Brisk purgative medicines are frequently mischievous
in mesmeric treatment. When the patient suffers
from habitual constipation an effort should at once be
made to discontinue their use — the tendency will
never be overcome whilst purgatives are used. Let
the patient make up his mind to be inconvenienced for
six or eight days, be cautious in his diet, eat food likely
to assist him, — as stewed prunes, dressed fruit, coarse
unfermented bread with the bran in, and drink every
morning a tumbler or two of water strongly mes-
merised with the intent of producing the required
effect. I have often known success attend this plan
after a few days' trial in stubborn and long-standing
cases of habitual constipation. When an aperient
must be taken, it should be some mild and simple
laxative ; and if repeated, the doses should be reduced
(if possible to obtain an effect thereby) until they can
be omitted altogether. A patient regularly mesmerised
may bear this reduction when another patient could
not. It is generally advisable for all patients to drink
freely of water well mesmerised by their accustomed
mesmeriser at meals or during the day.

It is exceedingly common when we mesmerise
patients, to find old slumbering rheumatic and other
pains suddenly awake and become troublesome. This
is always a good symptom ; it may trouble the patient,
but it should give the mesmeriser no other trouble
than a determined endeavour to remove them. If he
has not the pains himself, and has not taken them from
one to give them to another, a cause for them must
have been existing in the patient's system, therefore to
bring them into activity is the first step towards curing.

I shall say but little about the sensations which
mesmerisers experience when operating on diseased
persons ; they must be felt before we can expect

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 173

credence in their existence, and are only to be under-
stood by being felt. When mesmerisers are gaining
experience from constant practice they are educating
their sensibility, and learn to appreciate slight sen-
sations which the inexperienced might not notice.
These sensations will often indicate to the mesmeriser
the locality which is the seat of a disease. I do not
think they will enable him to determine the precise
nature of the disease, but it is still useful to pay
attention to the sensations. When removing pains
and aches the mesmeriser frequently feels pain or
some such sensation follow his hand in certain direc-
tions, and he loses the sensation if he draws the hand
in another direction. This will guide him to the
direction in which he may draw the pain out of the
system. When he feels it, he must continue to feel it
until it be brought to the extremities and thrown off.
If he loses it he must go back and find it, and draw it
away in another direction. A mesmeriser may try to
draw away pain for half an hour without success in
one direction, and find a dozen passes remove it if
made in another direction. Hence the necessity of
paying attention to every seeming trifle which may be
enlisted as an indication of the best method.

When a local disease is accompanied by general
disturbance of the system, whether it be a cause or an
effect of that general disturbance, we must apply mes-
merism to the system generally — local mesmerism will
not be sufficient to cure. We should mesmerise generally
and locally, by first mesmerising the patient to sleep if
possible and then mesmerising the diseased place.

When the affection is entirely local and does not
affect the general health, it is not often necessary to
put the patient under the general influence. For an
ordinary toothache, or headache, slight burns, chil-
blains, inflamed eyes, cuts and bruises, and all ailments
of a similar character, it will be sufficient to apply the
mesmerism locally.

174 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

Direct the action at once on the diseased place, by
pointing or holding the palm Of the hand over it, and
then try to attract or draw away the pain to the nearest
extremities and throw it off with a jerk. If you feel
any sensation of pain or heat, or tingling in your hand
or fingers, attend to the hints just given about con-
tinuing to feel it. If there is any disorganisation of
tissue, as from a burn or bruise, a little positive influence
may be applied to the part after the pain is drawn away,
to restore its tone and produce healthy action. — To take
away a headache, stand before or behind your patient,
hold the palms of the hands over the seat of the pain,
and draw it off. If the pain is at the top, draw it away
by the side ; if at the side or back, draw away to the
neck and off; or use demesmerising passes with the
palms of the hands over the head generally, until the
pain abates ; or mesmerise the feet thoroughly ; if
caused by indigestion, mesmerise the stomach. — All
unhealthy sores, which are merely local, may be
speedily cured by pointing the fingers over, or moving
them with a circular motion over, or making short
passes over. If they are not speedily cured by local
mesmerism the patient must be mesmerised generally.
— Inflamed eyes are easily cured by local mesmerism,
when caused by cold or some local action. If the
affection is from constitutional disturbance, general
mesmerism is of course indicated. — For slight deafness,
or dimness of vision, local mesmerism is sufficient.
When these affections are severe, local and general
mesmerism must be used. Breathing warm air from
our lungs into the ears often speedily relieves pains in
them, and temporary deafness. It is a powerful way
of mesmerising locally ; although it removes the effects
of passes it also removes diseased conditions of the
nerves by restoring them to their normal state. (There
is no contradiction in this, — the passes often producing
an abnormal state ; — they cure a persistent abnormal
state by inducing an abnormal state of a temporary

APPLICATION OP MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 175

kind.) — For sprains in the limbs, or "cricks" in the
neck, we may make the passes in contact by friction,
but all in one direction. — For cramps or spasms, either
internally or of the limbs, there is no method so
efficacious as by placing a folded handkerchief above
the part and breathing powerfully and with long and
deep expirations on it. We must apply the lips
closely, and try to force the warm air through the
pores of the skin, and rather above than on the part
that we may drive the disturbance downwards. — The
distressing morning sickness incidental to pregnancy
may be prevented by making a few strong passes from
the head and over the abdomen of the patient, before
she rises from her recumbent position; I have never
known this fail. — Hiccough may be generally cured
by similar means. — Feet and hands habitually cold and
subject to chilblains, may be relieved by an occasional
dose of local mesmerism with strong passes. — It cannot
be necessary that I should say more of the ailments
which may be relieved by local mesmerism nor of the
methods of application. I have said nothing which is
a deviation from strict truth. The application is so
simple, safe, and easily practised, that any healthy
person in the family may do it ; and so efficacious, that
if all the domestic medicine books ever published and
all the domestic medicines ever compounded were put
together, they would fall very far short, as agents for
domestic utility, of this natural and easily-attainable
domestic remedy.

Sores constantly discharging, whether behind the
ears or elsewhere, must not be stopped by local mes-
merism ; they are frequently issues set up naturally to
relieve the system. I one day mesmerised a little
boy's sore ear to cure it ; the sore dried up and was
healed next morning ; but the succeeding morning he
had a discharge from the eyes. Such sores must be
treated by general mesmerism.

When the learner mesmerises a patient for a disease

176 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

requiring his being placed under the application of the
influence, he must not direct his influence to the head
alone, but persevere by long passes made slowly ; he
must act as if he has the power of removing from the
patient a diseased influence which he can draw away
from him by the negative process. This is always a
safe rule whatever the disease be. In many diseases
the head is affected, either directly or from sympathy,
and the patient cannot bear mesmerism strongly applied
to the head to commence with, — the passes must be
made for many operations only over the trunk and
limbs ; these passes may soothe him into sleep, when
action directed to the head would have the effect of
exciting and irritating him to such a degree that sleep
would be impossible. We must never persevere to
mesmerise the head only in the hope of eventually
getting our patient to sleep. I know from experience
that in all nervous diseases attended by low spirits,
irritability, fits, or convulsive action, the less the operator
meddles with the head the better it is for the patient.

Fits, whether epileptic, hysterical, or of whatsoever
kind are most distressing afflictions, and are very rarely
cured by any means of a purely medical character.
Mesmerism is a successful remedy for fits, — but no
diseases give so much trouble to the mesmeriser and
require more care and assistance from the sufferer's
friends. Fits rarely exist without disturbance more
or less of the cerebral organs of the patient, and all
external circumstances which produce cerebral excite-
ment tend to produce and perpetuate the fits ; thus the
patient requires judicious moral as well as mesmeric
treatment, and the latter may fail to cure solely in
consequence of a neglect of the former. If your patient
be subject to fits it is exceedingly probable that the
mesmeric application will bring on a fit. The patient's
friends should be warned of this possibility, and cau-
tioned not to interfere with the patient during the fit,
unless the convulsive efforts are so violent that the

APPLICATION OF MfcSMKRISM TO DISEAfiJE. 177

patient must be held, or if a temporary state of mania
which requires restraint succeeds. If a fit comes on put
the patient on a sofa, or the floor, and stand or kneel
beside him and continue to mesmerise. If you are
tired wait until the patient becomes quiet and then try
to mesmerise him. You must not expect to produce
any decided effects during the severity of the fit, but
you may shorten its duration and lessen the amount of
distress which often follows the attack. If the fits
occur periodically remember the suggestions about
periodic accessions. If the attacks are distant the
patient should be mesmerised daily and also imme-
diately before the anticipated attack. An experienced
inesmeriser may sometimes prevent a fit when he sees it
approaching but it is not considered judicious practice,
it is " putting off the evil day," — it is better to let it
come and conquer it. One method is like the palliative
system of the allopath — the other like the aggravation
of the homoeopath. In some cases the fits become less
frequent and less severe under the treatment until
they finally cease ; but when they are brought on by
the mesmeric action we may calculate on a more speedy
cure of them.

When patients pass into deep sleep and require long
sleep they may be mesmerised at night after they
retire to bed. I often practise this in my own family.
Servants and many others have not leisure to sleep
long sleeps. We can accommodate them in this way,
but must remember that in case of fire they could not
aid in their own escape ; nor is this plan safe for sleep-
wakers, unless placed under the care of a prudent
bed-companion whose contact and company does not
distress them.

Patients frequently enquire if their clothing makes
any difference in the transmission or reception of the
influence, — are certain fabrics non-conductors of it ?
I am satisfied that the clothing does not stop the
passage of the influence although it may be modified

178 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE.

thereby. If we would understand mesmeric influence
by comparison with other imponderables we must
rather choose magnetism than frictional or voltaic
electricity as its analogue. The magnet attracts the
needle through glass, silk, and all other non-conductors
of electricity as readily as through conducting sub-
stances. Still I would always advise that when local
sores are mesmerised they be mesmerised without the
intervention of any covering, and that patients be
rather clad in loose wrappers or morning dresses of
light colours and thin fabrics than in heavy dark-
coloured materials. The majority of my patients have
always felt the influence from my hands like a cool
wind blowing upon them ; they feel it immediately that
a pass is made where there is no clothing, as the head,
or face, or neck ; it requires several passes to make it
sensibly felt through the clothes, and where the clothing
is very thick and bulky (as in some parts of a lady's
attire when mesmerising down the spine) a great many
passes must be made before the influence is felt. It
appears to me that the clothing must become saturated
before the full effect is perceptible to the patient.
Patients should be clad as far as comfort and decency
require ; more clothing than is necessary may or may
not be disadvantageous, but it certainly cannot be
advantageous and is therefore better dispensed with.

I may as well hint that during mesmeric sleep the
secretions are often stimulated to increased activity;
the kidneys become particularly active. When a gen-
tleman mesmerises a lady he should not forget this,
and as ladies are very modest he should make an
excuse to retire and leave his patient with a friend or
attendant of her own sex as soon as she is awakened.

I have endeavoured to give in this and foregoing
chapters all necessary instructions to guide a non-
medical mesmeriser to a prudent application of the
power; I have not attempted special directions for
treating each kind of disease; the circumstances of

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM TO DISEASE. 179

each individual case must guide the mesmeriser in
its treatment. I avoid filling pages with details of
my own success in the cure of diseases, because it
would rather increase the price than enhance the value
of this little Manual, and be following a bad example,
common in the medical profession, of advertising cures
in a book to puff up a reputation for skill. Where I
have introduced cases in my own experience, they
have been presented rather as examples of particular
phenomena than of my own power of inducing them.

I may sum up by stating that mesmerism is especially
applicable to cases of insanity and purely nervous
diseases, as there is scarcely any other means of curing.
That it cures diseases of function in all organs and
of whatsoever character. That it cures morbid forma-
tions or enlargements — as effusion, polypus, and various
tumors. That it cures diseases of structure — as soften-
ing, hardening, thickening, contraction of tendons and
muscles, and other changes of substance. That it cures
displacements arising from relaxation or loss of tone in
parts — as uterine prolapsus and diseases of a similar
character. That it is not necessary for a mesmeric cure
that the patient should sleep ; if he sleeps it is well, it will
save the operator much labour ; the practice of the most
successful mesmerisers is to commence operating at once
for a cure, avoiding the attempt to induce any special
phenomena, sleep is one of them ; they accept it gladly if
it comes, and it will come if needful and proper for the
patient. Nature knows better than the operator and
does that which is best for the patient.

( 180 )

DIET.

As mesmerism stimulates the functional powers of
the stomach and system generally, patients frequently
crave and actually require a larger amount of food
than they have been accustomed to previously to com-
mencing mesmeric treatment ; this increase they may
generally be allowed but common sense and common
prudence must dictate the nature and quality of the
food ; and common sense must convince us that such
plain viands, properly but simply dressed, as are
capable of affording the greatest amount of nutriment
when digested are the viands most suitable for our
patients. However, in order that food should afford
nourishment, it is essential that it be properly digested ;
some persons' organs are so capricious that they will
easily digest and assimilate the food which might be
supposed unwholesome, and be overtasked by the
effort to digest such food as is usually considered most
suitable for invalids. We must therefore be rather
guided by experience than by any fixed or arbitrary
rules ; if patients Cat anything which disagrees with
them they are fools if they eat it again. Excessive
drinking of stimulants, or smoking, snuffing, and other
bad habits must be abstained from. Mesmerised water
is the best drink ; coffee should generally be avoided ;
tea, cocoa, milk, sound malt liquor, or good wine may
be allowed in moderate quantities where patients have
been accustomed to their use ; and may be also mes-
merised with advantage to the patient before being
taken.

LSI

THE PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF
CLAIRVOYANTS.

I do know that certain persons when mesmerised and
in the sleep-waking state, have the faculties of clair-
voyance, intro-vision, medical instinct, and can also see
that which is past, and sometimes foresee that which is
to come. I believe that certain of these faculties may
be used for purposes conducive to the welfare and
happiness of mankind, and therefore the use be morally
justifiable. We may obtain from a good clairvoyant
immediate information of the health and welfare of a
dear relative or friend who is absent and distant from
us, in whatsoever part of the world that person may
be. I cannot see why it is not as allowable to obtain
such instant information through this channel as by the
electric telegraph. We may use the faculty of clair-
voyant intro-vision to obtain a knowledge of the state
and appearance of the internal organs of a sick person,
and of medical instinct to discover what disease affects
them and how it may be relieved or cured if curable ;
and we may thus obtain more certain and useful
information in the case than could be afforded by the
whole London College of Physicians, if they met in
conclave to debate and decide thereon. When the
clairvoyant can give us better information than the
physician, I see no sin in obtaining such information
from him, — he is a physician pro temp. If we seek to
know by the clairvoyant faculty what our next-door
neighbour is doing, or to intrude on the privacy of any
one from motives of idle or mischievous curiosity we
abuse the faculty. If we seek to discover the future.

182 PBUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.

we may obtain as much information as will satisfy us
that such power does exist ; if we call forth and act on
the sleep-waker's predictions in every-day matters, we
may be so far misled as to teach us that it is not a
faculty given or intended for such application. Clair-
voyants' prophecies are seldom worth much unless
when they are given without being sought for.

When the patient, on a second or third operation,
(having slept once and the sleep being renewed each
time) continues sleeping quietly, if you wish to ascer-
tain his state, address him in a low quiet tone of voice,
or a whisper, and enquire if he is comfortable, — if he
knows where he is, — and who you are ? If he takes no
notice of your question, and is insensible to your touch
or a gentle pinch, or a tickling, he is probably in deep
sleep and does not hear you, — the talking is all your
own ; the conversation cannot be very interesting ; you
need not continue it. If he attempts to speak and
cannot, but shows by the expression of the face, or by
signs, that he understands you, demesmerise his mouth
by a few transverse passes, and excite his organ of
Language by gently resting the tips of two fingers on
each eyelid over the centre of the eye ; then address
him again and he will probably be able to answer you.
When your patient speaks to you and has no memory of
having spoken after being awakened, he is a sleep-
waker ; it does not follow that he is in the perfect or
lucid state, or that he has clairvoyance, or any faculty
in this state superior to his customary waking faculties ;
the faculties which he has may be imperfectly awakened
or developed and he may talk incoherently or mistake
his position and present circumstances. This is quite
common with persons when first they pass into sleep-
waking ; their ultimate state is only attained and
perfected by a frequent renewal of the mesmeric state.
The mesmeriser will judge of his patient's state by the
replies which he obtains. I always enquire from my
sleep- wakers if they are in the light or the dark. If

PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS. 183

they say they are in the light, or see a bright light,
they are in a greater or lesser degree capable of
reasoning and useful conversation ; if they reply " in
the dark" it is useless to ask many questions, they
cannot have many useful mesmeric perceptions whilst
in mesmeric darkness. We may, when they are in the
light, next enquire if our conversation fatigues them,
ask them what they see, and persuade them to examine
themselves and tell us what it is that ails them. In
this state they may have a perfect memory of all that
which has occurred in their natural state ; we must
therefore take care not to be deceived by the operation
of their memory. When we enquire from a patient
about his disease he may at once reply that he has some
disease, perhaps a disease of the heart. We must not
accept his reply as the truth but ask how he knows
that this is the case. He may say, u Oh ! very well,
the doctor who attends me says so." This may be
right or may be wrong but it is not the information
which we require, he is speaking from his memory not
from his sleep-waking perceptions. If he says he
knows it because he sees his heart and understands
what is the matter with it, we may make a few more
enquiries which will confirm us in a belief of his truth,
— our patient then has intro- vision and medical instinct.
If conversation fatigues him and he requests us not to
disturb him we should comply with his wish, excepting
that we might put a question or two about himself and
his disease or if he can be cured and by what means.
We may also enquire if we should awaken him, or if
he will awake without our help, — and if we are to
arouse him how long he must first sleep, — how long he
will sleep if left to awaken spontaneously, — when he
should be mesmerised again, — if he can tell us how to
mesmerise him. These questions are allowable to be
put because they are intended for the patient's good; it
is extraordinary how correctly mere somniloquists, who
have very little clairvoyant faculty, will inform us

184 PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.

about these matters. Should the sleep-waker not
object to converse but reply to us readily and declare
that talking does not hurt him, we can at different
times test his powers, remembering that he has a
primary claim on their use for his own benefit, and that
we must not urge him to exercise his powers for others,
or about indifferent things, or idle matters of experiment
— unless he enters upon the investigation spontaneously.
Patients in whom the true faculty of clairvoyance is
developed seldom require urging to use it ; they begin
talking and telling you what they see, or where they are,
for many speak as if they were really present in some
distant place, or with some distant person. Mesmerisers
frequently lead them to distant places by imaginary
coach or railway, — saying " Now we will go to such a
station, tell me when we are there ; now we will go to
the next station," — and so on until we lead them
mentally to a place which they have not seen, and this
place they will then describe correctly with the cir-
cumstances which are there occurring at the very time.
This exercise is called " mental travelling." When
true clairvoyance, or mental vision, or spirit vision —
call it by whatsoever name we may — is presented by
our subject, it greatly depends on the management of
the mesmeriser whether this faculty shall be perfected
or perverted. Mesmerisers should use the faculty in a
confiding spirit of belief; they must not stay to enquire
and ascertain if it is possible, — they must be careful
how they make, or permit others to make, testing expe-
riments. Should the mesmeriser remind the subject
that he is not where he supposes but sitting in such a
room under such circumstances, he brings back the
subject from his clairvoyant perceptions, and may thus
spoil his clairvoyance. If you succeed in persuading
your clairvoyant that all which he sees is merely a
mental hallucination — an imaginary vision or dream —
you may destroy his clairvoyance by causing him to
doubt himself and his own perceptions. Clairvoyants

PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS. 185

who have been often mesmerised understand their own
state and refuse to answer questions which they per-
ceive to be asked from no other motive but that of
testing their truth, or from idle or impertinent cu-
riosity ; with clairvoyants new to the state the case is
otherwise, — they are lost in wonder at their own powers
and do not understand them ; they must be encouraged,
kindly admonished to be very sure of the truth of that
which they state ; and when they appear by one state-
ment to contradict another be requested in a kind
gentle manner to explain the seeming error and try
to discover which is truth and which a mistake. As
much difference frequently exists between the educated
faculties of an experienced clairvoyant and the new
faculties of an inexperienced one as exists betwixt the
faculties of the child and the man. All human intelli-
gence is progressive ; the possibility of advancing to
something better is the stamp set by Divine Omniscience
on the capability of human intelligence. The state of
a clairvoyant is not a state excepted from the operation
of the universal law ; clairvoyants are human beings ;
their faculty is an extraordinary but still a human
faculty, and subject to retrogression or progression like
every other human faculty ; the perfection of the faculty
therefore must depend upon the care which is taken to
nurse and foster it.

The only way in which the mesmeriser can guard
the faculty from injury is to avoid using it for idle
purposes ; never show it at all to an unbeliever in its
existence, and never urge the subject to exert his
power when he declares himself unable or unwilling to
do so. Be careful that no other person than yourself
ever mesmerises your clairvoyant, and never excite
his phrenological organs or make him a subject for
exhibiting other mesmeric phenomena. Consider the
faculty a special one granted to man by the Divine
Providence for use and instruction, and that it is a
profanation of this " gift of God" to call it into exercise

186 PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.

merely to amuse a parcel of idle curious people. Show
a clairvoyant to a promiscuous company and hear the
questions put from all sides : — " Can you tell me what
I have got in my pockets ?" — " What am I holding up
behind you?" — "Where was I last night at eight
o'clock?" — "Who did this letter come from and what
is it all about?" — "What is the matter with my
inside?" — " Is the moon inhabited?" The clairvoyant
may be anxious to satisfy every querist but it is beyond
his power to do so and the attempt injures that power
which he does possess. The clairvoyant is not respon-
sible for this abuse of his faculty, but the mesmeriser
is ; the company do not know the gift which they are
profaning, but the mesmeriser does or ought to do so.
If he wishes to convince unbelievers let him exhibit
other mesmeric subjects; let him show the cures he
has made and teach how useful the power is. As,
unfortunately, we cannot restrict mesmerism to those
alone who are capable of using it properly, we must be
content with warning young practitioners of the mis-
chief they may unintentionally commit.

Though I advise the mesmeriser to use the faculties
of clairvoyant sleep-wakers in a spirit of confiding
belief I do not tell him to neglect the dictates of
prudence and common sense. If the sleep-waker
directs any remedial measures as to diet or exercise
which are rational and safe let them be attended to ;
if he prescribes medicine for himself or another, the
non-medical mesmeriser must ascertain the properties
of the medicine and if the dose is a safe and proper
dose before it be administered ; if the measures or
medicine recommended be manifestly dangerous it
would not be prudent to rely implicitly on the sleep-
waker' s instructions. Dangerous remedies are often
prescribed by physicians with a successful result but
it is the physician alone who is competent to order or
sanction the use of a dangerous remedy. Let the
clairvoyant be consulted again and made acquainted

PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS. 187

with the scruples suggested by prudence ; if he still
insists on the necessity of the proposed remedy, and
there is reason from a knowledge of his former success
to place confidence in the fidelity of his instinct or
perception, obtain the sanction of a qualified practitioner
of physic who understands mesmerism, and then ad-
minister the remedy, taking care that the most minute
or seemingly trifling instructions of the clairvoyant
are strictly attended to. Do not venture upon a part
of his directions and neglect the rest ; choose whether
you will adopt or not adopt, but follow all or none.

Clairvoyants are seldom equally lucid on every occa-
sion. I have no patience with mesmerisers who assert
that a thing positively is so, and must be so, because "my
clairvoyant asserts it and cannot be wrong." Disturbing
influences which we understand are known to derange
lucid clairvoyance ; but there may exist many sources
of disturbance which we do not appreciate and cannot
therefore detect when in operation, and errors be caused
thereby. The thoughtless and bungling manner in
which many mesmerisers manage their sleep-waking
subjects becomes a fruitful source of error. When
mesmerisers are possessed by a spirit of curiosity
which seeks to be gratified regardless of utility, and
desire a clairvoyant subject to look at and reveal the
past, to explain all manner of things connected with
the present, and to prophesy or predict the future, —
that subject, if he tries to comply with these requi-
sitions, will soon lose his lucidity ; he will lose the
power of discriminating betwixt the past, the present,
and the future. Images or impressions of the past will
appear as if they belonged to the present, as will also
the future, — and his faculty will be lost in a sea of
perplexities. His efforts to see those things also which
are not spontaneously evident to him may excite his
ideality or imagination, and thus mental hallucinations
become mixed up with clairvoyant perceptions. Many
magnetisers look upon clairvoyance in a serious or

188 PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF CLAIRVOYANTS.

religious spirit, as a blessing granted to man for the use
of his fellow-man, and assert that the privilege is only
permitted to remain whilst exercised for some good
and charitable purpose ; and that if it be perverted it
is soon withdrawn.

A clairvoyant should be interrogated by his mesmeriser
only and should never be left ivith strangers during his
absence. If the mesmeriser must quit he should first
awaken his subject.

Let the young mesmeriser be guided by these hints
when he has the good fortune to make a clairvoyant
and he will not run the hazard of destroying the value
of his faculty, for the clairvoyance of a subject who is
not habitually truthful is of no value at all. The
subjects who would not be guilty of untruth wilfully,
may be led into the habit by persons inciting them to
attempt that which their faculty does not accomplish
easily, and they may thus be deceived by their own
imagination ; or their love of approbation and vanity
may if stimulated lead them to say things which they
know to be untrue, rather than confess themselves
incapable of doing that which is required.

Some clairvoyants can only exercise their faculties
on persons who are present with them ; some can see
parties at any distance if they are provided with a lock
of hair, or some article which the person sought has
worn; and some few can find any living person on
any portion of the earth's surface in a few minutes,
if the name of the person is given with his address
or some particular to distinguish that person from
others of the same name.

( 189 )

ON MESMERIC OPERATORS.

Those who are seeking to be informed about mes-
merism as a curative agency, frequently enquire who
are the best operators — whether males or females —
dark persons or fair — young or old — if the ignorant
and animal or the educated and intellectual should pre-
dominate in them — if mesmerising injures the operator
— how many patients one mesmeriser may operate on
in a day — if females should always mesmerise females
and males mesmerise males — if blood relations are
more suitable operators than those who are not related
— or if it be all a matter of indifference providing
that the operator be only in good health? It is a
duty to my readers that I should advert to these
and many similar queries ; if I give a personal
opinion I give it not dogmatically, as though my
knowledge was superior to that of others, but only
as the conviction which a large practical experience
(larger probably than that which falls to the lot of the
majority of mesmerisers) has led me to adopt.

When a patient desires to choose a mesmeriser it is
by no means a matter of indifference who is chosen ;
in many cases the selection of the operator makes all
the difference betwixt a cure or no cure, or a speedy
cure or one long protracted. No mistake is more
detrimental to the success of mesmeric treatment than
that which assumes it to be a matter of indifference
who the operator is provided he be healthy. As a
general rule males are more powerful mesmerisers than
females ; there is no general rule as to complexion
excepting as it relates to temperament ; the sanguine,
the choleric, or any temperament in which they pre-

190 MESMERIC OPERATORS.

dominate are to be preferred to the purely lymphatic.
Operators should be of mature age, as those who are
not arrived at maturity will injure* themselves ; they
should not be decidedly aged, or they may injure their
patients. When infants or children are to be frequently
mesmerised I would choose a young operator, and a
female in preference to a male. In many nervous
diseases the operator should have a mental and moral
power superior to that of the patient — a will and mind
capable of predominating over the patient's mind.
There are also many diseased states of body produced
or increased by a morbid or unhealthy state of mind,
in which the more certain and complete the mental
predominance of the operator the more certain and
speedy will be his success in curing. As a general
rule, and whensoever it can be obtained, I would
advise that the superiority of mental power be rather
in the operator than in the patient. A good mes-
meriser must have a large development of both mental
power and physical energy ; a strong mind in a strong
body will make a strong mesmeriser. The generality
of servants and persons moving in their station in
society have not the mental power developed which
would enable them to stand in the proper relation to a
patient superior in rank ; they are little better than
manipulating machines which require to be wound up,
set a-going, and superintended by a competent mes-
meriser. There are many diseases which such persons,
if strong, healthy, benevolent, and determined to cure,
will succeed in curing; but there are many more in
which they will fail, the moral power being on the
wrong side.

I by no means agree that each sex should have a
mesmeriser of the same sex ; in many cases the in-
fluence of a female operator will prove more beneficial
to a male patient than any male influence ; and there
are many diseases incidental to females for the cure of
which no female operator should be permitted to mes-

MESMERIC OPERATORS. 191

merise frequently. In uterine and mammary cancer
especially this should be observed, lest the disease be
developed in the female mesmeriser ; a circumstance
very likely to happen should there be any tendency
to it dormant in her system. In treating such cases
there is no process whatsoever needful which could
reasonably offend true delicacy ; there can therefore be
no indelicacy in choosing a male operator. In a large
proportion of cases there is hereditary tendency of
constitution to certain diseases ; when such diseases
become active blood relations are not proper mes-
merisers as they may share in this tendency. No
mesmeriser should be selected if it be ascertained that
he has, or there is in his family, any hereditary pre-
disposition to insanity, gout, scrofula, cancer, or other
disease transmissible by hereditary descent.

Patients sometimes feel an involuntary aversion to
the mesmeriser who may be chosen, without being either
able to give any good reason for it, or by reasoning
to divest themselves of it — in such case the operator
should be changed. Patients who are constantly
trying new systems and changing their doctors seldom
get cured, this remark equally applies to those who are
constantly changing their mesmerisers. Those suf-
ferers from long-standing chronic diseases who desire
to try mesmerism for their cure, should first ascertain
if a cure be possible or probable ; they should then
select wisely and well, and when properly suited keep
to the mesmeriser chosen. Those who neglect to adopt
this rule and subject themselves to the operation of
incompetent or improper mesmerisers, or give up the
treatment before waiting a suitable time for a successful
result, must not blame mesmerism for not curing their
diseases ; but blame themselves for half doing that which
should either be well done or not done at all.

In many cases a member of the family who is well
may be found willing to mesmerise another member of
the family who is ill ; and such operator, if healthy,

192 MESMERIC OPERATORS,

may be very properly chosen. We must however
remember always that if a person is so ill as to require
mesmerising he is ill enough to have it done properly ;
there must be no playing at mesmerism allowed; there-
fore no person ignorant respecting mesmerism should
undertake a case until he has either by reading, or
if possible by personal instruction, acquired some
knowledge of that which he is about to do, and the
consequences or effects which will probably ensue.
Whensoever it be possible patients should always obtain
the assistance of a competent and experienced mesmeric
operator to put the new mesmeriser into the right way of
operating, to give Mm confidence and encouragement, and
to be ready at hand to advise him (if advice be required)
during the treatment of the case.

Some persons ought never to attempt to mesmerise ;
one patient a day might be one too many. A man may
be tolerably well and have health enough for himself,
but not any to spare for another. There are however
persons naturally endowed with such a supply of healthy
energy that they cannot be still ; they must be in
active occupation of some kind or they become nervous
and irritable ; these people may as well exhaust their
energy by mesmerising as in any other way; and
some of them will mesmerise a great portion of every
day and a great many patients, and do this for years
without exhausting their energy or impairing their own
health. We may divide all men into three classes, as
to health — those who are above par, those at par, those
below par. Mesmerisers should belong to the first
class. Persons should not practise mesmerism until
their physical structure is fully developed ; nor should
matrons who purpose adding to the family ; nor should
any one when he feels tired or exhausted and has no
strength to spare at the time.

APPENDIX.

I have hitherto avoided speculation, being desirous of ad-
ducing phenomena capable of proof by facts, independently of
any hypothesis formed to explain them. As a writer who has
extensive and practical knowledge of the subject I may give an
opinion, which though not evidence of the cause of these facts
may assist in its elucidation.

1 do believe that there, is a mesmeric emanation proceeding
from the mesmeriser which is imparted to and received by the
subject or object mesmerised. That this influence is a portion
of that power or force which is generated by his brain and by
which the voluntary and involuntary functions of his organism
are actuated and maintained. That this force or power is an
imponderable, analogous to or resembling the force or active
influence of electricity, galvanism, and magnetism. That the
mesmeric power is communicable by direct transmission, and
produces special effects as a consequence of its reception ; and
that effects may be produced by induction also (like states
causing like states), without a designed transmission. That
when effects are caused by transmission the mesmeriser loses
that which he gives; when by induction, the effects are pro-
duced without sensible loss of power. That the influence by
which the mesmeriser cures diseases is a vital influence, — a
portion of that power which maintains his own organs and their
functions in health and healthy action, — and when imparted to
a patient it is capable of causing healthy action in his organs
(the patient's), and thus restoring them to a state of health, —
the influence of the mesmeriser subserving for the use of the
patient. That induction may indirectly produce the like effects
in a lesser degree, or diseased states may be caused by induc-
tion. That direct mesmerism by transmission is dependent on
the operator's volition ; that induced mesmerism is involuntary.
That clairvoyants, and. some sensitive persons in their waking
state, do see this mesmeric influence, which they describe as a
luminous emanation. That there is evidence of the existence
of a mesmeric influence, quite as conclusive and satisfactory to
all who seek for it as the evidence on which philosophers believe
in the existence of electricity, galvanism, or magnetism. Clair-
voyants say that they see the luminous influence about all
persons who are actively engaged, whether designedly mes-
merising or not. The influence of sick persons is dull and
dirty looking ; they have very little bright light about them.
AVhen they are mesmerised the operator's bright influence

O

194 APPENDIX.

displaces some of their dull influence and takes its place ;
and this dull influence hangs about the patient and operator
like a cloud, unless the latter takes care to disperse it.

No subject connected with the philosophy of mesmerism is
more important than a discovery of the relation of its active
force or principle (which must be an imponderable) with other
imponderables. Truly we know very little of the absolute
nature of any imponderable ; when we talk of light and heat,
of electricity and magnetism, of attraction, we are only using
terms to characterise and identify certain observed effects — the
terms convey to the mind an idea of effects and not of causes.
If we can show that a relation exists between the hidden cause
of mesmeric phenomena and the phenomena of the impon-
derable forces, and that the application of electricity, gal-
vanism, the magnetism of steel magnets, and other imponderable
agencies whose existence is scarcely known, will produce like
effects upon the human organism as those of the mesmeric
agency of the human operator, we establish a relation be-
tween the imponderable mesmeric power and these other im-
ponderable powers or forces, we prove that mesmerism is but a
part of a universal whole, and place it in a position where philo-
sophers will soon be compelled to acknowledge it. This relation
has been discovered and established. Dr. Elliotson years ago
showed that there were existing in metals certain occult forces
which would produce specific effects upon the nervous system of
sensitive persons. Dr. Ashburner proved by experiments that
certain applications of electricity and galvanism would pro-
duce effects similar to those induced by mesmeric influence. Mr.
Hazard of Bristol has put subjects into the deep mesmeric sleep
by electricity. The Baron von Keichenbach, a distinguished
chemist and natural philosopher, has investigated the subject and
discovered a magnificent whole which connects them ; he has
proved that there is another imponderable force or power. This
imponderable exists in magnets, in chrystals, in the solar rays,
in lunar, planetary, and starry influence, in heat, in light, is
evolved from all vitalised organisations, by all active electrical
or voltaic combinations, by all chemical actions of composition
and decomposition, by all mechanical action which disturbs any
existing arrangement of the ponderable molecules or atoms of
matter. Wheresoever there exists action there is this im-
ponderable agent eliminated. Under the proper conditions for
observation it is visible as a luminous emanation, and it is also
ascertained that it is polarised, or possesses polar arrangements ;
it is communicable, conductible, and transmissible. Its action
has a direct relation to disturbed vitality or the diseases of
human beings, consequently a knotdedge of its action and laics
is necessary to those who tvould undertake the cure of diseases,
and this is a part of tlie science not only of mesmerism but of

APPENDIX, 195

medicine. It may also, when the application is thoroughly

understood, become a very important part. Winn we know
how to accumulate and lise this power of chrystals and mag-
nets, called by Reichenbach odic force, we may be able to dis-
pense with much human labour, and obtain the desired
effects more certainly, by substituting the odic force of inani-
mate agents for the human odic force. The subject should be
studied by all those who wish to understand mesmerism pro-
perly. As I have not space to give even a brief analysis of it,
my readers must seek the information in the translations of
the original work by Dr. Ashburner, published by Bailliere ;
or of Dr. Gregory, the Edinburgh Professor of Chemistry,
published by Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

Is the mesmeric sleep precisely the same as the natural sleep ?
Can the natural sleep be deepened into true mesmeric ? I
cannot determine this question, but am disposed to think the
two kinds of sleep are not identically the same. My oppor-
tunity for experiment has been limited, although I have tried
it in a few cases. I have quietly gone at night to the bed-
side of my daughters and others, all susceptible and passing
easily into the deep mesmeric sleep, when they were asleep
naturally, and mesmerised them by passes. Instead of their
natural sleep being deepened into mesmeric thereby, the effect
has invariably been to awaken them and produce a state of
wakefulness which deprived them of rest for the remainder of
the night, unless I subsequently induced the true mesmeric
sleep and left them in it. The result of these experiments has
been widely different from that which I anticipated. I expected
that when persons accustomed to be mesmerised were asleep
naturally, they would be mesmerised even more easily ; and
that an advantage might be obtained over difficult patients by
operating on them when passive and in a natural sleep. Instead
of this the passes have aroused the sleeping person. My
experiments having only been tried upon a few persons cannot
be received as establishing a general result. I hope other mes-
merisers, who have any opportunity, will repeat them and pub-
lish their experience. I asked one of the subjects (my daughter)
when in lucid sleep-waking to explain this ; her reply was, " I
cannot explain it clearly, although I feel how it is ; when I sleep
naturally I sleep my own sleep, my very own sleep ; when you
mesmerise me 1 sleep your sleep ; i cannot be in my own sleep
and your sleep at the same time, so before I can go into your
sleep you must bring me out of my very own sleep, and
therefore your mesmerising awakes me.;'

Dr. Wilson, formerly attached to the Middlesex Hospital, had
a large experience of the effects of mesmerism upon the inferior
animal creation, and proved that birds, beasts, and even fish are
as susceptible to the influence as human beings. His experi-

196 APPENDIX.

merits were published, and have been frequently repeated by others.
I have often succeeded in placing birds (both wild and tame) in
the deep sleep, and found, just as occurs with human beings,
that some were susceptible and some were not. These experi-
ments are exceedingly interesting and prove decidedly that the
effects must be caused by specific influence, as imagination
cannot be presumed the actuating cause.

I presume that all homoeopathic practitioners of medicine
are advocates of mesmerism, as Hahnemann the founder of their
system was a mesmerist, and recommends its use for some
diseases. It is a fact strongly corroborative of the truth of the
homoeopathic doctrines, and of the medicinal potency of the
globules used in the practice, that many medical clairvoyants
prescribe these remedies if they are permitted to feel them, and
prescribe them correctly according to the established principles
and practice of the system. All do not prescribe them, for
some will insist on the necessity of a dose of the old-fashioned
physic, or a bleeding or blistering ; and many prescribe what are
usually known as " old women's remedies." I am on terms of
friendship with a medical clairvoyant (now the wife of a surgeon
in extensive practice), who is one of the best homosopathists
existing when in sleep-waking, but knows very little about
the system when awake. I have tested the powers of this
young lady frequently by taking the little bottles at random
from the case, putting them into her hand, without either of us
reading the labels, and writing her description of the use and
effects of the contents ; then on the bottle being returned I have
noted the name of the medicine and have invariably found her
statement agreeing with the recognised use of the medicine.
I have seen a well-known homoeopathic physician sit beside
this young lady for several hours, with a large case containing
some 300 bottles on his knees, and test "her powers in a similar
manner, taking the bottles out at random, and I believe he
invariably found that on feeling the bottle she correctly de-
scribed the properties of its contents, although she could not
tell the name. My servant, Fletcher, who was so uneducated
that she could not write and read but indifferently, had a con-
siderable amount of this faculty. I one day enquired of her
when in sleep-waking, "What little pills'? (she called the glo-
bules little pills) " would do a lady good ?" The lady suffered
from obstinate and severe constipation and was cured by mes-
merism. Fletcher instantly replied (from perception), "Give
her graphites and opium." She would be puzzled to know, when
awake, what the words opium and graphites mean, certainly
has no knowledge of their properties; the homoeopath will
know that they were suitable medicines for the complaint. My
eldest daughter has been occasionally clairvoyant, but knows1 no
more of homoeopathy than of Hebrew in her waking state.

APPENDIX. 107

One morning she aroused me by coming into our room for the
keys. Her mother requested me to put her to sleep that we
might know if a friend at Derby, who was dangerously ill and
not expected to recover, was still alive. I called her to our
bedside, took her hand, put her into sleep-waking, sent her to
Derby, and obtained the required information. Whilst ques-
tioning her I became conscious of having a sore throat, and
enquired if she could tell me what homoeopathic medicine would
cure it. She replied, " Why father, how should I know? 1 am
not a doctor." I explained that Miss H. could do so when
mesmerised, and perhaps she could if she desired to do it. She
said, " I will try and think, but mind, I may be wrong." After
thinking a few minutes she said, " You must take two globules
of the same medicine which you gave me on Thursday night."
This medicine was Belladonna, prescribed for her by a friend
who is conversant with homoeopathic remedies, to relieve a pain
in the head. Desiring to test her, I refused her prescription,
saying, " You are wrong, my dear, that is not the proper
medicine; do you think you could find it if you had the cases?"
She said she did not know, but would try if I wished her to do
so ; I gave her three pocket cases containing seventy-two dif-
ferent medicines, she felt one case betwixt the palms of her
hands and presently rejected it, saying, "there is nothing in this
box which will cure your throat." She felt another case in the
same way and made a similar remark. She felt the third case
and said, " there is a medicine in this case which will cure you
if I am able to find it." She then opened the case and applied a
finger to each bottle in succession, commenced this feeling again,
and stopping at the sixth bottle, handed it to me, saying, " Take
tAvo globules directly from this bottle; I feel that it will cure
your throat, but not more than two globules." I received the
little bottle from her hand and read the label, it was Belladonna.
I swallowed the two globules and my sore throat had departed
within two hours. This was a beautiful example of instinctive
faculty. She did not know that she had taken Belladonna for
curing her headache, but it was a proper medicine for my throat,
and was prescribed from instinctive perception. When I re-
jected it she selected the same medicine from seventy-two
bottles by the sense of touch alone and her instinctive appre-
ciation of its properties.

Hypnotism and Electro-Biology. — Mr. Braid, a respectable
surgeon of Manchester, after attending some mesmeric lectures
seven or eight years ago, was convinced of the genuine nature
of the phenomena educed, but not convinced that there was any
mesmeric emanation proceeding from the operator and acting on
the subject. He ascribed the effects to the staring with the eyes
at a fixed point until they Avere fatigued, and the continued

198 APPENDIX.

abstraction of the mind from a succession of ideas by keeping
the attention directed to the object. He tried experiments suc-
cessfully as to confirming him in his theory, by making persons
stare at a cork tied to the forehead, or at a coin or other object
held at such an angle above the forehead as to cause the eyes to
squint and become fatigued speedily. Certain of the persons
who tried this process soon closed their eyes, which they could
not re-open, and had their nervous susceptibility so excited or
exalted that they were obedient to tractive passes or processes ;
could have their limbs made rigid by the operator merely ex-
tending and telling them that they could not put them down ;
could have the cerebral organs stimulated phreno-mesmerically,
and many passed into a state resembling sleep, but in which
consciousness and subsequent memory remained. I am not
aware that the mesmeric sleep-waking or deep unconscious
sleep has been produced by this process on its first trial upon
subjects who have never been mesmerised, but sensitive persons
who have been frequently mesmerised may have their peculiar
mesmeric state brought on by this process as readily as by any
one of the customary mesmeric character. Mr. Braid named
his process hypnotism (or nervous sleep), and has been ex-
ceedingly successful in his application of it as a curative agent.
Lately a famous mesmeriser in the United States, Dr. Bovee
Dodds, has made another application of this staring process, by
causing the subject to fix his attention on a coin or a disk of
zinc with a small portion of copper in its centre held in the hand.
Dr. Dodds makes a distinction betwixt the states induced by
this process and mesmerism which appears to me more fanciful
than true ; he designates the states caused by his process as
electro-psychology, and calls mesmerism the " doctrine of
sympathy" — electro-psychology the " doctrine of impressions."
This system is now becoming well known as " electro -biology."
Dr. Darling and Mr. Stone, two American gentlemen, are doing
mesmerism good service, for by their lectures on electro-biology
they must convince many persons of its truth, who would have
declined to witness the same experiments with the same persons
had they have been invited to attend a lecture on mesmerism.
In these experiments I am inclined to doubt that any galvanic
current appreciable by even a highly sensitive subject can be
excited by the disk of zinc and copper ; the modus operandi of
its action appears strictly analogous to Mr. Braid's method of
hypnotising. These methods induce a sensitive state on certain
subjects, which causes them to succumb to the mesmeric
influence of the operator or experimenter as readily as if the
subjects had been rendered susceptible by the customary mes-
meric operation. The whole of the experiments exhibited by
Dr. Darling and Mr. Stone have been shown years ago and in
public, by Spencer Hall and other lecturers on mesmerism, upon

APPENDIX. 199

subjects who were in their waking conscious state ; every expe-
rienced mesmeriser is perfectly well acquainted with them ;

there is not anything new in the experiments, and very little
novelty in the system unless it be in the name, — the state
induced is precisely that which I have in the pages of this little
book, called "The Mesmeric Waking State;" and the experi-
ments are examples of what mesmerisers call " suggestive
dreaming," and the effects of the "will power" of one upon
the volition, sensation, or imagination of another. To mes-
merise persons by making them look earnestly and for a long
time at the mesmeriser who also gazes on his patient, is
usually found the most efficacious method of making an im-
pression ; the process when sleep is desired should be completed
W passes. I feel it my duty to warn the young operator that
the hypnotic process is not free from great inconvenience at
least, if not positive danger. I know many instances of persons
who having been frequently hypnotised by Mr. Braid's method
have become so sensitive that on accidentally looking at any object
above their eyes the eyes fix and the hypnotic state succeeds, to the
great annoyance of the party, who cannot recover from it until
■wafted with a handkerchief or relieved by some other demesmerisiny
ptrocess. I have seen mesmeric patients mesmerised by acci-
dentally fixing an earnest gaze at an object, we should therefore
be cautious how we induce on persons the habit of passing into
this sensitive nervous state by fixing their eyes and attention.
If we desire it for the patient's benefit it is much safer and
probably more beneficial to proceed by the recognised methods
of mesmerising, if we begin by gazing we may finish by passes;
I have no doubt that the steady gaze is useful as a means of
exciting the patient's impressionability, but I see no good reason
why the process should be confined to the steady gaze. The
remarks made on Mr. Braid's hypnotic method are, I presume,
equally applicable to the process of gazing at a disk or coin held
in the hand.

Divining Chrystals. — There exists and is exercised by some
persons a power or faculty of seeing the past, the distant
present, and divining the future, by looking into spheres of
glass or rock chrystal, or mirrors constructed in a particular
way. Some of these seers can also see in bottles of mesmerised
water. 1 am by no means in a condition to explain the cause
of this power, but have no doubt as to its existence, having
seen facts enough to convince me. The art of divining by
these means is very ancient ; and certain old formulae for pre -
paring and using the chrystals are known. When the chrystal
has been fashioned and polished it is dedicated to some spirit r
this is called " consecrating" it. Before using it is " charged"
— that is, an invocation to this spirit is uttered requesting a

200 APPENDIX.

vision of the things which it is desired should be known ; a
young person is usually chosen to look into the globe for the
required vision ; the chrystal after a time becomes clouded and
a minute vision appears then to be discerned by the seer in the
chrystal, the vision being a miniature representation of persons,
things, scenes, &c, &c, necessary to afford the information
sought. When this and other information wished has been
obtained the chrystal is " discharged," by thanking the spirit
to whom it is dedicated for his services rendered and dismissing
him from farther attendance. This certainly appears some-
what like ancient magic or " black art ;" and doubtless is a kind
or species of clairvoyance, but I am by no means satisfied that
it is identical with mesmeric clairvoyance. If the seer can see
as clearly in spheres or mirrors over which no invocation has
been said as in those prepared and charged, then these matters
are irrelevant and originate in error, and we may consider this
faculty analogous to mesmerism — the silent gazing inducing
the necessary sensitive state, and the desire to know causing a
clairvoyant vision which the seer fancies he really perceives in
the chrystal, although the impression is cerebral : if, on the
contrary, the " call" or " charge" — that is, the invocation to
some spirit — be necessary for success, then does the subject
take another form differing from mesmeric clairvoyance,
and which mesmerisers will certainly reject in so much that
they do not invoke the assistance of spiritual beings in their
operations, unless by the heartfelt prayer for Divine aid which
many pious mesmerisers may feel it a duty to utter. We are,
however, not to jump hastily or rashly to a conclusion that
when an operator takes a chrystal or glass in his hand and
" charges" it, the power communicated is supernatural, and
success dependent on the assistance of a disembodied spirit,
angel, or demon ; for in the act of charging the operator may
undesignedly mesmerise the chrystal, which again in conse-
quence mesmerises the seer, and thus the effects obtained may
be purely mesmeric and therefore natural, although the operator
may suppose them to be supernatural. I have neither time nor
inclination to look personally into this matter ; I do know from
facts which have been brought within my notice that it is pos-
sible to employ supernatural (or spiritual) agency to work effects
in this natural world ; I do know the frightful, awful, and fatal
consequences to human beings which have followed from the
exercise of such agency, having been employed as a mesmeriser
to try and remedy the mischief done ; and as a mesmeriser I
repudiate it, and earnestly hope that my brother mesmerisers,
whether they believe or not in the possibility of employing
spiritual agents, will carefully avoid mixing up mesmerism
with the arts and practices which profess to employ them.

Thomas Scott, Printer, 1, "Warwick Court, Ilolborn.

/<*